The Cave Official Series 2: The Pyramid
by shadowglove
Summary: Sequel to "The Cave". When Weyland wants to meet with Chloe, she has no interest until she realizes that they might know something about Jack, who disappeared months ago. She and Lois find more than they were looking for while in the pyramid...as always.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville, the Cave, or AVP…or the little teeny itsy bitsy bit of SPN featured in this.**

_Written for my Paranormal25 150 Prompt Table. Prompt of the story # 89: Shrine (or temple)._

Sequel to THE CAVE, but can be read without having read THE CAVE, although certain things might be a little confusing.

* * *

Feign, dodge, parry, and strike.

Twirling and thus evading the blow of the spear thrust at her, Chloe felt her heart slowing slightly and her breathing regulating despite the constant activity as she quickly flexed her body to the right, grabbed the spear that once more was thrust at her, and pulled it out of the hand of her attacker.

Throwing the spear behind her, she dodged the punch aimed at her face and grabbed the wrist, offsetting her attacker and causing the person to lose balance and stumble long enough for Chloe to bring her knee up violently into the mouth of her attacker's stomach, a cry of pain echoing throughout the room as she threw her assailant over her shoulder to the ground.

Getting back up with an expert flip, the attacker screamed and attacked.

Chloe back flipped and grabbed the discarded spear, and in a second she twirled and the tip of the spear was pressed against the now halted attacker, pressed against the rapidly beating pulse.

The sound of clapping caused both Chloe and her attacker to turn their gazes to the man who'd been on the sidelines watching the fight in awed silence. "Excellent."

The blonde smiled and lowered her weapon, grinning at the person she'd been fighting. "Sorry about the kneeing thing."

"Damn, that hurt." Lois Lane, Chloe's cousin, assistant, and sparring companion, grinned as she pressed a hand to her stomach. "You're amazing, Chlo. In two months you learnt everything I had to teach, and in only five months you've learnt almost everything all those fighting masters Lex hired to teach you had to offer. You're like, a teenaged mutant turtle now or something."

Chloe's grin deepened. "Well, I'm not so sure about the teenaged _or_ turtle part, but I'm definitely a mutant---."

"And a damn impressive one at _that_!" Lois continued as she shared a proud smile with Lex Luthor, their friend and boss. "Did you _see_ the back flip? The girl has gone _Crouching Dragon Hidden Tiger_ on us."

"Wasn't it _Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon_?" Lex asked from besides Chloe, somewhat amused.

"Whatever." Lois waved that off, no really caring if she had her movie titles mixed up. "The point is that we have a _ninja warrior_ in our midst. We have the future _hokage_ here besides us."

Chloe and Lex's gazes met in amusement and they rolled their eyes at the brunette. "Someone's been watching a _bit_ too much _Naruto_." The blonde snarked with a cheeky grin.

"Shut up." Lois blushed slightly, although she was grinning as well. "That Sasuke guy is _hot_."

"Oh _god_…" Lex groaned.

"What?" Lois demanded. "A guy who likes to wear so much pastels should be able to get in touch with his feminine side and agree with me on this. The guy is _totally_ hot!"

Chloe bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing.

Lex glared at Lois for that quip about his favorite shirts. "Lois, the guy's a _cartoon_!"

"A _hot_ cartoon, like Roger Rabbit's wife." Lois then turned to Chloe. "Do you remember that? It used to be our favorite movie."

"Yeah," the blonde nodded, giggling at the memory. "I haven't seen it in _years_."

"Me neither." Lois confessed.

"Who's Roger Rabbit?" Lex asked, somewhat confused. "What movie are you two talking about?"

Lois' eyes widened in horror. "What sort of demented childhood did you _have_?" She gasped. "We have to do something about this! Chloe, you and I are renting _Who Framed Roger Rabbit_ and we're going to force Lex to watch it to right the wrong inflicted on him when he was younger."

"Oh _god_." Lex sighed once more.

Chloe couldn't help it, she laughed.

When Lex and Lois were together they were _comical_.

Lex shook his head and chuckled, but then he suddenly brought his hand to his mouth and started to cough terribly, something he'd been doing for the last couple of months. He staggered slightly and Lois and Chloe both rushed to get him and help the young man to the chair he'd been sitting in while watching Chloe show all that she'd learnt during the last couple of months.

The blonde tightened her hold on her boss and friend and tried to activate her powers, but once again the barrier Lex had put up against her was keeping her from healing him.

When she'd found out some months before that he was dying, she'd been pissed at him and Lois for keeping such a horrible secret from her. She'd then demanded that he let her heal him, and had scoffed at the idea of him draining her powers. She'd even tried to _force_ her healing powers onto him---_anything_ to keep him alive---and that was when Lex's passive meter power had become _active_. He had a way of blocking the effects of other people's mutations, so she couldn't heal him, not if he didn't let her.

And it frustrated her; it left her without the ability to sleep most nights. Lex and Lois were two of the most important people in her lives, and the thought that she couldn't use her powers to heal one of them, to save their _life_…it ate at her.

"Lex…" she whispered as Lois and her watched him as he sat on the chair and coughed violently. "Let me…"

"_No_." His voice was firm despite what he was suffering. He looked so _bad_ these last couple of months. He'd gotten paler and weaker, needing to sit down more and more, and he'd collapsed the other day and had had to be taken to the Metropolis Hospital in an ambulance, and yet he still blocked her powers from having any effect on him.

They look up as a knock is heard.

"Come in." Lex visibly relaxed, forcing back any pain or discomfort he might be feeling.

He refused to look sick or weak in front of anyone.

Chloe squeezed his shoulder slightly in support.

His smile was more genuine when the door opened to show Mansfield, their butler. "Sir, a Mister Maxwell Stafford here who would like to speak with you." He paused. "He says he represents Weyland Industries."

Lois made a face. "What's that asshole doing here?"

Chloe bit her bottom lip to keep from grinning.

Even Lex couldn't keep from looking a bit amused at the outburst.

Relations betweens LexCorp and Weyland Industries were very fragile due to Weyland's ties with LuthorCorp, and Stafford and Lois clashed terribly whenever Chloe had to deal with him, with Weyland calling Lois an annoying Chihuahua and Lois calling him a couple of titles Chloe was sure he'd never heard before.

"Please, send him in." Lex addressed Mansfield regally.

"Yeah." Lois put her hands on her hips. "And don't give him the royal treatment, Manny. The parasite ain't staying here long!"

"As you wish, Miss Lois." Mansfield gave a little bow and went to retrieve visitor, his lips fighting the grin.

"Lois…" Lex finally spoke, gaze on the door.

"I know, I know. On my best behavior." Lois pouted. "But if he _says_ the C word I'm all up his ass!"

Lex nodded in agreement.

She grinned.

Chloe rolled her eyes and then turned her attention to the door when it opened, to reveal Mansfield and Maxwell Stafford.

"Mister Luthor, Miss Sullivan, Miss _Lane_." The elegant and admittedly good-looking Afro-Caribbean man's voice was liquid velvet cut with a crystal clear English accent. "I am sorry for coming without calling to set up an appointment first, but it's of the greatest importance and I couldn't risk _someone_ 'accidentally' hanging up on me every single time I call."

He gave Lois a narrowed glare.

"Well, you got through to us, Maxy." Lois smirked, all self-righteous and haughty. "So tell us, what does one of the world's biggest polluters want with us?"

"Nothing with _you_," Maxwell snorted, before turning his attention back to Lex. "But Mister Weyland would like to enter into negotiations to have an _alliance_ with LexCorp…if you, or Miss Sullivan, will meet with him."

Lex raised an eyebrow.

Chloe could understand his surprise.

Weyland Industries was a huge, multimillion dollar business, and while LexCorp was doing amazingly on its own, association with Weyland would help them tremendously.

Lex, though, played it cool and somewhat disinterested as he leaned back in the chair and steepled his fingers. "I do not think my father will be pleased with Mister Weyland entering into business with us."

Good point.

LexCorp and LuthorCorp were bitter rivals.

Stafford cleared his throat. "LuthorCorp and Weyland Industries have severed their alliance due to personal differences."

Oh-kay.

Things were beginning to make much more sense now.

Lex hesitated for a moment.

This was like making a deal with the Devil…or in other words…_Lionel_.

"When?" He finally asked.

"Tomorrow."

Lois huffed. "Talk about no notice. We're not any business, _Maxy_. If you think you can worm your slimy little way into LexCorp's good graces this way then you can take your offer and stick it up your---."

Lex raised a hand.

Lois bit down on that last word.

"Mister Weyland understands the inconvenience that this request may put you through, but he assures LexCorp that this is a venture of a lifetime, and that even tomorrow may be too late."

Lex narrowed his eyes slightly at the wording.

Chloe frowned. "What exactly does Mister Weyland need us for, Mister Stafford? I can't think of many things that Weyland Industries can't accomplish on its own. So why does it suddenly need our help?"

He took in a deep breath. "I---I am not at liberty to discuss this openly, but I may say that a Mister _Top Buchannan_ refused to work for someone he didn't trust, and so Mister Weyland promised that you would be on board for this expedition."

"Expedition?" Lois made a face.

"_Top_?" Chloe's eyes widened at the mention of the man whom had survived that hellish cave and those monsters with her.

The last time she'd seen him he'd left with Charlie, Tyler…and _Jack_.

Lex stood. "I do not appreciate Weyland acting as if _my_ representative were his to command! Just for that act _alone_ I should refuse any meeting with him!"

Chloe felt a little desperate at the thought of losing this opportunity.

After months of rough treatments, injecting himself with vials of Chloe's blood to try and repress the monstrous transformations in his body, Jack had just _disappeared_ off of the face of the earth. Charlie had called Chloe to let her know the moment they'd noticed his absence and his things gone, and despite using LexCorp resources, Chloe couldn't find a trace of Jack McAlister.

She worried daily about him.

But she decided that if he couldn't be found it was because he didn't _want_ to be found.

And she needed to respect that.

And anyway, it wasn't as if she could go see him if she found him. Just being in her presence alone made Jack worst, undoing all the good any treatment with her blood did, so they were forced to be apart.

But why couldn't he have left them a general forwarding address to keep sending him the vials with her blood?

How was he supposed to get better if they were the only things that kept his mutation from taking control and making him into some horrible monster?

Lex seemed to understand everything going on through Chloe's mind, because he sighed. "But since this has some personal interest for me, I will agree to Mister Weyland's proposition. Unfortunately I already have a prior engagement, but Miss Sullivan and Miss Lane will go in my stead."

Chloe felt relief and excitement flooding into her.

"As you wish," Stafford turned to Chloe. "I advised you to pack for extreme cold, Miss Sullivan. We set for the Piper Maru, an Ice Breaker currently stationed in the Antarctic Ocean."

Lois paled. "The _Antarctic_?"

"Yes." Stafford nodded before sneering slightly. "I'd forgotten Chihuahua's were unable to take the cold. You'll just have to stay here and we'll find a way to make it without your company."

Lois' eyes narrowed in fury at the C word.

Chloe stepped forwards before Lois could carry out her threat to Lex. "Mister Stafford, you better leave now if you want to remain intact."

"I'll take your advice, and will have a driver come for your things later." Stafford nodded before excusing himself and leaving.

Lois turned to Chloe.

There was about knock on the door.

"Come in!" Chloe called, eager to interrupt Lois in the middle of a temper tantrum.

Mansfield stuck his head in the room. "Phone for you, Miss Sullivan."

"Thank _god_." Chloe whispered, rushing out of the room towards the first phone she could find, picking it up and placing it to her ear. "Chloe Sullivan speaking."

"You sound breathless, were you busy?" The voice on the other end was deep and masculine.

Chloe smiled. "John! So good to hear from you, how are you doing?"

"Fine, thank you." Like always, John got right back down to business. "I've come upon some artifacts that need a more secure holding place than I can give them."

Chloe leaned up against the wall. "Let me guess. Hand of zombie cursed by a voodoo priestess that will make you die in three days if you touch it?"

There was a moment's silence before John laughed. "Uh, no, not exactly. But it's something along those lines. Can we meet up?"

"Hmmm, I don't think so. I have to get packed to go to meet a potential ally for LexCorp, and I'm leaving in a couple of hours. I won't have the time. But I _could_ have Mansfield come get it from you wherever you are."

"You know I don't trust anyone else with these things, Chloe." John sounded annoyed. "Only you."

"And _you_ know that I'm the sole representative of a large and _growing_ string of successful and demanding corporations." Chloe narrowed her eyes, not taking John's crappy attitude or his do-it-because-I-said-so way of being.

John was the type of guy who barked out orders and expected them to be followed without a moment's question.

Most people did exactly that.

Not Chloe though.

She questioned him.

A _lot_.

She also made _him_ ask a lot of questions about his own decisions.

That was one of the things he'd admitted to admiring about her.

"Chloe, this is important." John sighed, backing down from the fight, knowing from experience that going up against Chloe meant frustration and certain defeat. "If these artifacts were to fall into the wrong hands…"

"I know John, you know I understand." Chloe looked up at the ceiling with a sigh. "But understand that this is my job we're talking about. Lex depends on me and he needs me to do this, plus, I have a personal reason for going. I'm sorry, but I can't stay."

There was a moment's silence. "Does this have something to do with that guy?"

"Yeah." Chloe nodded although she knew that John couldn't see her.

"_Chloe_." John sighed, and she could imagine him running his palm over his face. "This isn't healthy, for the both of you. For his own good, leave him alone and let him disappear with some dignity."

Chloe closed her eyes.

John knew everything about her, just like she knew everything about him.

They'd met when the apartment building complex she was looking into buying for Lex had come with a nasty little curse that'd caused the corpses of the Indians buried there centuries ago to rise up and trap her in the complex.

Even with her abilities Chloe would have surely died if John hadn't arrived and saved her life. Together they'd worked and broken the curse, ending up burning the whole place to the ground, and cementing a strong bond between them both.

"John, I---I'm not looking for _him_, but I'm going to see someone who might know where he is and if he's _okay_." She sighed, bringing a hand to her heart. "If I could just know that he's okay I'll be happy."

He sighed. "You need to learn to let go, to find someone else."

"You offering?" She teased.

He chuckled. "Don't tempt me."

Chloe smiled, opening her eyes and twirling the cord of the phone. "How far are you from my home?"

He sighed. "An hour? Two?"

"And you're driving as we speak, right?" Chloe asked.

"You know me. I hate staying in one place long enough to be detected."

"Look, I'm only doing this because you're my absolutely favorite hunter in the _whole entire world_." Chloe pushed away from the wall. "Haul ass, make it here in an hour, and get to my house. I'll take the zombie hand (or whatever) off of you and put it in the safe place while _you_ pack _my_ things. How about that?"

"I get to pack your clothes?" John was obviously making a displeased face at this. "How is this supposed to be in my favor?"

"I take the crap off of your hands and they're protected." Chloe reminded him conversationally.

"Right." John remembered, before sighing and giving her an honest warning. "I can't fold worth shit."

"Neither can I." She grinned. "See you in an hour old man."

She hung up before he could answer that.

Lois peeked out of the room she'd been in with Lex. "Who was that?"

"John." Chloe announced, beginning to walk away. "I'm going to go pack my stuff, so should you."

"When am I going to meet this mysterious guy anyway?" Lois pouted.

"Go _pack_." Chloe motioned her away before turning and leaving as well, trying not to be too excited.

* * *

"You can't fold worth shit." Chloe noted as John clumsily did the job, and she sat on the ground, in boxers and a muscle shirt, eating a sandwich she'd made.

"Neither can you." John reminded her, motioning with his chin towards the clothes she'd messily folded before he'd arrived.

"I know." Chloe grinned, taking another sip of her sandwich.

"My wife used to be able to pack with such neatness, it was perfection." John smiled, stopping for a moment as he lost himself in the memory, before shaking his head and continuing with his work. "Sam, my youngest, he's like Mary. He's neat and used to do Dean and my clothes. Dean used to give him hell and call him _Samantha_…"

Chloe smiled, always enjoying it when John spoke about his sons. She'd never met them personally, but through John she knew all about them and about Adam, the son he kept secret from them.

"Have you thought about what we were talking about last time?" Chloe asked, getting up and taking the shirt from him, passing John the other half of her sandwich.

He gave her a grateful smile before taking a bite out of the sandwich, chewing, and swallowing. "They wouldn't be able to accept it, Chloe."

"I think they'd accept it better if they found out about him from you." Chloe countered, putting the shirt in the suitcase. "They'd never forgive you if they found out about Adam some other way."

"How would they find out about him?" John frowned.

"Secrets have a nasty way of being discovered by the people they're being hidden from." Chloe reminded, picking up her last piece of clothes and folded it. "Just, think about it, John. You need to do this. Think of _Adam_. He has brothers out there and doesn't even _know_ he does."

John sighed, finishing the half sandwich. "But Sam already hates me as it is, and Dean never really forgave me after I told Sam that if he went to Stanford to never have anything to do with us again."

"Well, it wasn't your greatest moment." Chloe reminded him. "And I've talked to you about reaching out to your sons. They're your legacy, and even if you get the bastard that killed your wife, the victory will be worthless if you've lost your two sons during the way."

John looked up at her, obviously troubled by what she'd said. "I'll think about it."

"Thank you." Chloe smiled, closing her suitcase. "You want to stay here a couple of days? To rest? I won't be here so you'll have the place all to yourself. There might be a hunt somewhere in the area…and I'll feel better about leaving this place if I know you're here."

John looked around her home with a smile. "Sure."

She walked over to him and surprised the hunter by hugging him tightly. "Call Sam, John. Talk to him and Dean. Get close to your boys before its too late."

He sighed before hugging her back. "Okay."

Reaching up on her tiptoes, Chloe kissed his cheek and grinned at him as she grabbed her clothes and went to bathe.

By the time she came back out, dressed smartly, John was going over a newspaper, obviously looking for a hunt.

They weren't able to talk more because a limo had pulled up outside her home.

"I hope you find out about the guy…and that he's okay." John's last words had made her smile.

"Me too."

* * *

The moment they'd landed on the Piper Maru, Lois had had to be taken to their room. The poor woman was dead drunk, something she always did whenever she had to fly. It was quite unusual since Lois was okay with flying if she was the one doing the flying, but if someone else was in the cockpit she got the fear of god and always drank herself into unconsciousness.

Thankfully Chloe had met Graham Miller, a chemical engineer, who'd showed her pictures of his boys and ex-wife, and had been fun to chat to on the flight over to the Piper Maru. By the time they'd landed she'd been anxious though, glad that Mister Weyland was 'indisposed' at the moment and unable to greet her.

After making sure to get Stafford to take a drunken Lois to their room, Chloe had first taken a deep, cold breath of fresh air, and then she'd called Lex as promised. As soon as she'd hung up, though, Chloe had squared her shoulders and gone off searching.

And, despite how large the ice breaker was, she easily found the man she'd been looking for.

Chloe froze for a second, her gaze falling on the handsome dark skinned man, and then her face lit up and she ran to him and threw her arms around him tightly. "_Top!"_

"Chloe." He grinned, hugging her. "I was beginning to think that Weyland had been lying when he said that you'd be a part of this. How's Lois and Mister Luthor?"

"Lex's fine, he had another meeting so he wasn't able to come---and Lois is skunk drunk in our room." Chloe grinned, pulling away and looking at his face. "How are you doing, Top?"

"Fine, not much to complain about." He responded. "After…well…Tyler continued with the spelunking business…he married Charlie and they're expecting their first kid."

"That's great." Chloe grinned.

Top nodded. "I started working as an environmental technician and guide, I'm the best in my field…which is why Weyland wants me on this gig---whatever it is."

"So they haven't told you anything either." She sighed as they began to walk down the hallway.

"No, nothing, only that they want the best of the best for it." Top admitted, before sending her a look. "When are you going to ask about him?"

She gave him a guilty smile. "Five more minutes tops."

Top sighed, running his hand over his shortly cropped hair. "Jack----he disappeared some months after we left. One day we woke up to find his things gone and no sign of him."

"He hasn't been in contact with even Tyler?" Chloe asked, biting down on her bottom lip, worried.

"No. Nothing." Top stopped and turned, leaning against the wall. "Chloe, what we never told you, though, was that those months Jack really wasn't doing too good. Even the blood stopped helping him. It was like his body had gotten too used to it."

Chloe's eyes widened.

"He was having these violent _episodes_…his muscles would spasm, his eyes would go to that four point star design again, his veins would show up black under his pale skin…and he'd be _vicious_." Top sighed, looking pained to remember this. "I think he left just as much for us as he did for him."

Chloe hung her head. "Why didn't you all call and tell me when these things started happening to him?"

"Because Jack made us swear that we wouldn't breathe a word to anyone, and we figured we owed him that and more." Top responded frankly. "And anyway, you know that your presence there would have made it worse."

"Yes, I guess you're right." Chloe whispered, leaning against the opposite wall, looking down at her shoes, fighting the tears. "I---I just worry so much about him, Top. What---what if something's happened to him or he's done something to hurt himself? You remember he was planning on committing suicide while in the cave! What if---."

"I worry too." Top interrupted. "But if Jack left it was for a good reason. We need to trust him."

"Yes, we do." Chloe smiled at him, wiping at her eyes. "It's so good to talk to you again."

Top smiled in agreement, nodding.

Together they walked to the main room, and Top introduced her around to the large group of people surrounded by thermal digging equipment. Three teams were assembled in the briefing area, waiting for Weyland to deem himself able to see them and tell them why the _hell_ they were all there.

The first team Chloe called 'The Scientists'. It consisted of Top, Sebastian (an archaeologist), his right hand man Thomas, and Miller (who'd waved enthusiastically when he'd seen her).

The second team was dubbed 'The Muscle'. It consisted of Maxwell Stafford and the Weyland security personnel, most prominently Adele Rousseau (who was sexy, tough, and toned); Verheiden, a soldier of fortune that had fought in hotspots all over the world and earned a prominent scar down his face as a souvenir; Connors, a bearded outdoorsman who looked like a chiseled version of the Unabomber; and Klaus, a big Dane built like a Viking.

The third team was composed of 'The Drillers'. They were lead by Quinn, a muscular Texan and third generation driller, and also consisted of roughnecks Sven, Boris, and Mikkel.

Standing between Boris and Sven, Miller looked like a thread of dental floss. Excitedly bouncing around the room like a human pinball, Miller jumped inside the cab of one of Quinn's large driller machines and began to press buttons like a kid.

Verheiden raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Having fun?"

"First real adventure." Miller admitted. "Can't wait to tell my kids about all this."

Verheiden shook his head. "This might be an adventure for you, _dad_, but for the rest of us it's a job. Get off the equipment and go back to the suburbs before you walk us all of a cliff."

Chloe frowned. She disliked Verheiden's attitude.

Verheiden ignored her. "Get off or you'll be wearing your ass for a hat."

Miller quickly moved, going to stand next to Chloe, as if seeking protection.

Chloe found that somewhat amusing.

Verheiden turned to look at his men as if asking: _Can you believe this guy_? He then turned to Stafford. "Keep the beakers away from the gear."

Miller frowned before turning to Chloe. "What's a beaker?"

Chloe blinked a moment before answering. "It's what they call scientists out here. You know…beaker? Like in the Muppet Show."

"Beaker…" Miller suddenly smiled. "I kinda like that."

Chloe sent him a smile.

Thomas approached Sebastian, sitting down. "Weyland's cheque cleared."

"Good." Sebastian spoke, accent heavy and yet attractive. "We're going to listen to whatever he has to say. We nod, we smile, and then we politely decline whatever offer he makes, take the money, and head back to Mexico."

Apparently whatever it was that Weyland was planning, it was important for him to _bribe_ people to come.

That little fact raised Chloe's interest a little.

Max looked around the room to make sure everyone was there. "Welcome aboard everybody! Please. You probably wonder why this elite team of experts was assembled here?" He paused for a moment before continuing. "Your host will give you the answer now."

The room fell quiet.

He continued. "Mr. Weyland."

A man emerged from the shadows behind Stafford.

Charles Bishop Weyland was in his forties, looking more like a big game hunter than the billionaire that he was.

An assistant handed a tablet PC to everyone in the room as Weyland nodded to Stafford to fire up a digital projector, illuminating a large square of the peeling metal wall behind Weyland.

"Thank you all for coming." Weyland spoke, his voice strong. "Seven days ago one of my satellites over Antarctica was hunting for mineral deposits when a sudden heat bloom beneath the earth outlined this…"

And image came up on the wall behind Weyland. It was a pattern of interlocking square shapes.

An intense ripple of excitement spread through the room.

Chloe narrowed her eyes and took a step closer.

Weyland continued. "The red lines indicate solid walls. Through thermal mapping we've generated a rough three--dimensional image of the structure. It's massive…" He paused for a second. "Containing hundred of rooms, all built around a central core. My experts tell me it's a pyramid. What they can't agree on is who built it and when."

"What caused the heat bloom?" Thomas asked a _very_ good question.

"We don't know." Weyland answered honestly.

Chloe had to give him points for that.

Sebastian clicked past the photographs on his tablet PC.

Weyland snapped the slides of the three-dimensional pyramid. "One expert tells me that this feature is reminiscent of the Aztecs." He snapped another slide. "Another tells me that this is probably Cambodian." He snapped yet another slide. "But everyone agrees that the smooth side is definitely Egyptian."

"Why would _anyone_ build a pyramid out here?" Miller wanted to know.

Thomas answered the question. "Ancient maps show Antarctica free of ice. It's likely that the continent was once habitable."

Stafford was watching Sebastian, who was going towards the wall. "Mr. De Rosa?"

Sebastian stepped closer to the wall, examining the pictures and comparing them with the pictures on his tablet PC. "I think your experts are right."

"Which one?" Weyland asked.

"All of them." Sebastian finally looked up. "The Egyptians, the Cambodians, and the Aztecs all built pyramids. Three separate cultures that lived thousands of miles apart--."

"---With no communication." Thomas added quickly from where he sat.

"Yet what they built was almost identical." Sebastian continued as if Thomas hadn't said a thing.

"Meaning _what_ exactly?" Chloe finally spoke up, folding her arms over her chest.

He turned to her. "This might be the first pyramid ever built."

"Built by who?" Top wanted to know.

Sebastian could barely contain his excitement. "The master culture from which all others are derived."

Everyone in the room was stunned.

Weyland smiled slightly. "If it could be the first pyramid, it could also be the last. An amalgam of the ones that came before it…there's no proof of any connection between the cultures."

Sebastian pointed to the photo. "This is proof."

Weyland smiled a little more. "Thank you."

Miller cleared his throat. "Um…I can't tell you who built it, but if I could take a sample from it, I could tell you how old it is."

"Within how many years, Professor?" Stafford was curious to know.

"Actually, it's Doctor." Miller interjected. "And I'll give you the _exact_ year."

Chloe was impressed.

So was Weyland. "Well Doctor Miller, I'm offering to put you right next to this thing."

Top made a face. "Where exactly on the ice is this?"

"Bouvetoya Island." Weylan replied. "But it's not on the ice. It's two thousand feet under it." The next picture snapped into the slide. "Directly below this abandoned whaling station, which will serve as our base camp."

Stafford turned to the drillers. "Mr. Quinn."

Quinn stepped forwards from his men. "Mr. Stafford, you're looking at the best drilling team in the world. We'll chew to that depth in seven days."

Sven, Boris and Mikkel nodded in agreement.

"And add three weeks on top of that to train everyone here." Top spoke up.

Weyland shook his head. "We don't have that kind of time. I'm not the only one with a satellite over Antarctica. Others will be here soon."

Top frowned. "Maybe I wasn't clear. _No one_ in this room is ready for this trip."

"Which is why I agreed to the terms you specified for your arrival here." Weyland reminded him.

Top sent a look at Chloe before turning back to Weyland. "Bouvetoya is one of the most isolated places in the world. The nearest land is a thousand miles away. There's no help if we run into trouble."

"You're right, it's a no man's land. But the train has left the station. I think I speak for everyone aboard this ship," he pointed to the amazing imagery of the pyramid. "That this is worth the risk."

Top looked around as a chorus of excitement was heard. It was obvious that everyone's minds were made up.

He then turned to Weyland. "Find another guide."

And then he walked out.

Chloe watched him go, and hesitated only a second before hurrying after him, hearing Weyland telling someone to both contact the next guide on the list…and to refuel the chopper for Top's departure. She really didn't pay much attention to it though, following the path Top had taken and finding him out on the deck, leaning against the railing, looking up at the night sky.

Above, a powerful X-class flare erupted from the sky, accompanied by a halo coronal mass ejection.

"It's in the upper atmosphere." Top spoke, obviously knowing she was there despite not having turned around. "Streams of protons and electrons from the sun are deflected by the earth's magnetic field causing a solar radiation storm."

Chloe joined him, leaning on the railing and watching the lights. "It's beautiful."

"Yes, it is." He agreed, gaze above. "You're going to stay, aren't you?"

She nodded. "The sudden heat bloom, that design…something just doesn't seem right."

He turned to look at her. "If you think something's wrong, then why are you going?"

"Instinct?" Chloe asked.

Top made a face. "I thought you were claustrophobic? That you were terrified of being underground ever since you'd been buried alive and all that?"

"Still am." She admitted. "But it isn't as strong now that I figured out how to do _this_." In seconds her eyes tickled, and she didn't need to look at her reflection to know that her eyes were golden and feline.

Before, when she'd been newly infected, these eyes and instincts would only appear when she was in danger, but she'd learnt to control them at will and they were really handy.

"You've got complete control over your mutations." Top guessed.

"Not really." Chloe admitted. "There's still a lot I don't understand, but I'm okay with that for now."

Top sighed. "If only Jack could be able to say the same…that he has some control."

"Maybe he does." Chloe whispered.

"Maybe." Top nodded.

Neither were convincing.

"Will you reconsider coming with us?" Chloe asked.

"Will you reconsider coming back with me? Both you and Lois?" Top asked.

They looked at each other and shook their heads in silent answer to the questions asked.

"Mr. Buchannan." They turned their heads at the voice, seeing Rousseau there. "Your helicopter's refueled. They're waiting for you."

Top nodded to the woman with the short, choppy haircut, before turning to Chloe and hugging her. "Take care---and say hi to Lois when she gets over the hangover."

"I will." Chloe smiled sadly as they pulled apart, and she watched him walk away.

Sighing, she turned back and looked up at the lights in the sky.

* * *

Deep in space, a spaceship cruised slowly.

Three Predator helmets were arranged around a computer monitor. The design was distinctly techno-medieval.

Suddenly a hologram above the computer flickered into life.

The icons and language were all Predator, but the imagery it showed was recognizable---it was the _pyramid_.

A predator targeting system activated, drawing a line between the pyramid and the surface of the ice.

The spaceship shot a beam of searing hot plasma down towards Antarctica.

* * *

**Here endeth chapter one.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/Alien Vs Predator.**

Wanna thank **vamp1987, Ev** and **Veronica** for reviewing the previous chapter— :D

* * *

The ship was at standstill. The pack ice had already begun to reform, creating a solid sheet around the ship's hull.

Quinn and his Roughnecks were hoisting the drilling platforms out of the hold and lowering them to the ice.

A dozen shivering scientists were gathered around, obviously waiting for something. Sebastian and Miller were a part of the audience, as were Thomas, Rousseau and Verheiden. Lois also was there, flirting quite contentedly with Sebastian, who looked immensely flattered by her attentions.

The moon hung low in the sky.

Its dull blue glow provided what little illumination there was. It was freezing cold because the doors of the hold were open.

Verheiden turned to his men. "Move these Haaglunds out!"

In the background, the Haaglunds were being unloaded as Quinn and the rest of his team continued to unload the rest of their equipment.

"I'm surprised that even though Top left you're still interested in me accompanying you." Chloe admitted from where she stood above with Weyland, watching the activity below. "Wouldn't Weyland Industries want this discovery all for themselves?"

"It is true that I invited you because of Mr. Buchannan's insistence on not being able to work for someone he didn't trust," Weyland crossed his hands behind his back before turning to look at Chloe. "But I must admit that I have wanted to meet you in person for a while now, Miss Sullivan."

The blonde looked at him in surprise. "Why exactly is that?"

"You are a person of interest to me." Weyland spoke carefully. "And to be truthful, it is mostly because of the way Lionel spoke of you during our alliance. He has pure contempt for his son, but for you he holds admiration, and a not a little amount of fascination. Max also speaks highly of you."

Chloe looked away, a little uncomfortable with the direction of their conversation.

Ever since her brief partnership with Lionel when she was fifteen, she realized the way he looked at her wasn't with the mentor-like way that he should. When he'd tried to press an unwanted advance at her one night she'd ended up quitting and walking out on him, and he'd ended up being kneed in the famous Luthor family jewels and collapsed on the floor.

For some reason he'd seemed to like her even more after that.

And after Chloe had discovered her own power by bringing Lex back to life after Lionel had shot him during an intense showdown she didn't want to even think about, Lionel had become obsessed with metahumans and their powers.

Chloe still blamed herself to this day for that.

"I'm sure you'll find yourself sorely disappointed." Chloe announced, returning her attention to the others. "I'm not very interesting."

"I quite disagree with you on that, Miss Sullivan." Weyland announced. "You survived that cave, _and_ the gruesome creatures therein. You are of _much_ interest to me. And yet you have been strong enough to control a strong mutation."

Chloe looked up at him in horror. "What?"

"I believe we have a mutual friend." Weyland responded.

Chloe's eyes widened. "_Jack_."

Weyland nodded. "When Mister McAlister came to me some months ago talking about caves and parasites and mutations I thought he was insane, but when I took a sample of his blood we were able to prove for ourselves that there was something _different_."

Chloe felt horror filling her whole body.

Why would Jack turn to Weyland and give him his blood? Which could have the parasites in it! He would be giving Weyland so much _power_! And she didn't trust Weyland to use that power wisely.

"I can only guess what must be going through your mind." The older man admitted. "But you don't have to worry, when injected into other hosts nothing happened. Apparently being in a certain environment, or being close to a certain object, is what triggered the mutation, not the parasite itself. When injected into another host, the parasite died within the first ten minutes."

_The Kryptonian Crystal must be the trigger for the mutation_.

"Where's Jack?"

Weyland gave her a look. "He is doing well. Or, as well as he can at the moment."

"Why did he go to you?" Chloe asked.

"I'm the leader in modern robotics and other projects people might consider _science fiction_---he was seeking alternative help."

"Meaning? Chloe frowned.

"He has requested he be put in a state of cryosleep, while we search for a way to try and regress the mutations."

"Regress?" Chloe whispered.

Weyland sighed. "The mutations gained complete control. If we hadn't done this, which completely froze the mutation and its process, he would have completely transformed by the month."

"I want to see him." Chloe narrowed her eyes at him, unable to believe that Jack was frozen somewhere being experimented on.

Though…though she could see him choosing this.

"When we return from the pyramid I will take you to see him personally." Weyland promised.

Chloe nodded.

Jerry Murdock, the new guide, stepped forwards down below to address the scientists.

Thomas took out his digital video camera and began to record the briefing.

Jerry spoke in a simple, low key, matter of fact tone. Behind him were ice axes, tents, stoves, harnesses, ropes, thermarests, neoprene water bottles and first aid kits.

"Everybody." Jerry spoke up. "Gather round. It's my job to keep you alive on this expedition, and I need your help to do that. Since I don't have the time to properly train you, I'm laying down three simple rules."

Rousseau handed out walkie-talkies.

"One: No one goes anywhere alone. Ever." Jerry continued. "Two: Everyone will maintain constant communication. Three: unexpected things will happen. When they do---no one tries to be a hero."

"For some of us it just comes naturally." Miller joked.

Lois grinned, having heard this.

A few small laughs came from those listening.

Verheiden snorted, shaking his head. "Laugh it up, beaker. You get scars like this when some 'hero' on your team screw up their assignment."

Miller looked at Verheiden, and at the large scar on the side of his face.

There would be no more jokes around him.

Jerry looked at Verheiden. "If one of us goes down, we're all going after them. Understood?"

"Understood." Everyone spoke.

The meeting broke.

Lois turned back to Sebastian, who was grinning brightly, and Sebastian straightened immediately, smile somewhat shy.

Chloe smiled as she watched them.

Ever since Clark had left to try and find the safe planet some of his people might have escaped to before the destruction of Krypton, Lois had been somewhat withdrawn around men, and so it was good to see her going back to her flirty self.

Chloe's gaze went to Rousseau, who was cleaning her automatic handgun.

She smiled.

A gun would have done them some good down in that hellhole of a cave.

After that ordeal Chloe usually kept one on her person _just in case_.

So it was good to know that at least _someone_ else was being prepared.

----------

Soon after, they left on the five tracked vehicles, and reached the whaling station.

The lead Haaglund topped a snow rise and halted. One by one the others followed suit. Weyland, Chloe and Lois, who were riding one Haaglund, disembarked, followed by the others.

Around them, the snow fell, slow and steady.

"Take those over a little further!" Quinn told his men, referring to the Haaglunds. "Connors! Hold it guys…Keep the engines running!"

Thomas made his way up to Rousseau, grinning at her. "Hi."

Rousseau said nothing and continued to smoke.

He chuckled, not letting that deter him. "Be honest. You're a little disappointed that you didn't get the yellow jacket, aren't you?"

The woman looked at him at that, snorting. "They give the newbie's the yellow jackets so that when you fall down a crevice and die, it's easier for us to spot your body."

Thomas nodded and moved off rapidly.

Chloe bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing.

Jerry fired a parachute flare into the air.

It exploded in the air and brightly illuminated the Whaling Station in a cool green hue.

"It's an abandoned whaling station." Lois stated the obvious, hugging herself against the cold, her breaths coming out in huffs of steam. "According to the satellite imagery, the pyramid should be located directly beneath it, right?"

Chloe nodded, hugging herself as well.

"And you have a bad feeling about this." Lois reiterated.

Chloe nodded once more.

Lois sighed. "Okay then, let's do this."

There were dozens of wooden buildings in the whaling station, some of them no more than shacks. All of them encrusted with ice and half buried in the snow.

The team walked down "Main Street", illuminating the bizarre ghost town with their flashlights.

It was creepy as hell.

"Spread out." Stafford told his men. "We'll use this place as base camp." He turned to Quinn. "Mr. Quinn. Begin drilling operations as soon as possible."

Quinn nodded. "I'm on it."

A giant black cauldron dominated the harbor. Fifteen feet high, thirty feet across, one of its four feet had been knocked away and it tilted over at a crazy angle. Only the fact that it was frozen solid stopped it from tumbling into the harbor below.

Lois pointed. "What are those?"

"Whalebones." Chloe looked in the direction pointed. "This station was abandoned in 1904. Everyone just disappeared overnight. It was a big mystery back then."

Lois sent Chloe a suspicious look. "You've researched this place completely ever since being told we were coming here, didn't you?"

Chloe nodded.

Sebastian reached their side, obviously having heard their conversation and figuring out that Chloe knew some things about this place. "So, is it a witch's cauldron?" He joked, pointing to the big black cauldron.

"That's actually the 'Separator'." Chloe corrected with a smile. "Throw whale blubber in, heat it, separate out the fat. Whale oil was big business back then."

The harbor leading to the whaling station was totally frozen over.

Sebastian stared down at the thick ice. "How did they get ships in here?"

"Good question." Lois piped.

"The station only operated in the summer, when the pack ice melted." Chloe responded.

"Why was it abandoned in '04?" Sebastian asked.

Chloe looked away. "Nothing left to hunt, I guess."

Lois' eyes narrowed.

There was shouting heard.

Chloe and Lois shared a look while Sebastian watched as Thomas ran towards them, flushed and excited.

"Over here! You're not going to believe this!"

Sebastian hurried after his assistant.

Chloe and Lois stayed behind a little, Chloe shaking her boot where her gun was hidden.

"I thought you said they mysteriously vanished." Lois mumbled as they slowly followed behind.

"I did." Chloe murmured back. "I just didn't want to scare him just in case I'm being paranoid or something."

"Paranoid isn't bad, it's kept us alive in the past." Lois unzipped her jacket a little to show the gun hoister and silver blinking in the moonlight. "Let's just say we're all a little paranoid."

Chloe smiled.

They turned around the corner of the mess hall to reveal a gaping hole in the snow and ice. It was perfectly round…ten feet across. Sebastian, Thomas, and the rest of the team were gathering around the hole.

Off to one side was Quinn's drilling equipment---it wasn't even unpacked.

Chloe and Lois shared another look.

"It's drilled at a perfect 30 degree angle." Quinn announced, looking down into the hole.

"How far does it go down?" Jerry Murdoch asked.

"All the way to the pyramid." Weyland answered.

Quinn nodded to Sven and he lit a flare, then dropped it down the shaft. The fare fell endlessly until its flickering light was finally swallowed in the darkness.

It never hit the bottom.

"How was it done?" Miller asked the question on everyone's mind.

"Thermal equipment of some kind." Quinn answered.

"Like yours?" Weyland wanted to know.

Quinn shook his head. He glanced at the building closest to the hole. Whatever cut through the ice had also cut clean through the building, vaporizing wooden beams and metal walls.

"More advanced. Incredibly powerful." Quinn finally answered. "I've never seen anything like it."

"I told you I wasn't the only one with a satellite." Weyland announced. "It must be another team. Maybe the Chinese…the Russians. Whoever it is, they clearly have better equipment than we do."

Quinn turned to Weyland. "Listen, whoever cut this, sliced through pack ice, the building, the beams, and solid metal walls. We should find out what cut this before we proceed."

"I thought _you_ were the best?" Stafford made a face.

Quinn bristled, obviously not appreciating the criticism. "I _am_ the best."

"It doesn't make any sense." Chloe spoke up, looking around. "If there were someone else here, someone who could use a beam so advanced like that---where are they? Where's their base camp? Why aren't there any signs at all of anyone else having been here since this place was abandoned all those years ago?"

"She's right." Quinn spoke, turning back to the hole. "Something's not right."

Lois narrowed her eyes.

"They must already be down there." Stafford insisted, not listening to reason. "They must have their base camp down inside."

Chloe knelt down and examined the ice at the mouth of the hole. "No. Look at the ice. There's no ridges." She turned to look back at the others. "Nobody's been down there."

"She's right." Jerry announced after bending down and examining it alongside Chloe.

Weyland frowned. "Satellite passed over eleven minutes ago." He turned to Stafford. "Get me the data."

The handsome dark-skinned man nodded and moved off to do that.

"I didn't know that you knew some tracking." Jerry turned to Chloe with a small smile.

"I like to read." She offered, standing up and ending the conversation, not willing to get friendly with any of the guides ever again. She'd made that mistake with Jack while on the Romanian trip and she wasn't going to get close to someone only to lose them again.

"What are you thinking?" Lois asked after Chloe and her walked away from the group a little.

"I'm not sure." Chloe admitted, looking back at the hole. "But let's stick together, okay?"

"No problemo." Lois announced, watching as Stafford motioned for everyone to come towards him, where he was standing next to one of the Haaglunds.

They headed there with the other and watched as Stafford spread a satellite photo over the hood of the Haaglund for them to see. "There it is. Clear as day."

There was the familiar pattern of interlocking square shapes that made up the pyramid. Only this time, a long red line (the tunnel) connected them to the surface of the ice.

"And this time yesterday." Stafford replaced the photo with one taken 24 hours later. The square shapes were the same, but there was no tunnel.

Weyland made a face. "Nothing."

Sebastian pointed behind them at the tunnel. "So whoever cut this…they did it in the last 24 hours."

"That's just not possible." Quinn shook his head.

"It's here." Sebastian pressed. "It's done."

"I'm telling you there's no team and no machine in the world that could cut to this depth in twenty-four hours." Quinn glared at the scientist.

"The only way we're going to know for sure is to get down there and find out." Weyland decided, frowning.

Everyone nodded and got back to work.

Even half an hour later they were busy working at the mouth of the tunnel, readying for their descent into the unknown. Ropes were dropped into the void and Sven, Boris and Mikkel were building a winch and pulley system over the mouth of the tunnel.

At the tunnel mouth Quinn yelled down at his men. "What's taking so long? There's a storm coming!"

Chloe pulled open the door to the Haaglund, thinking of entering and sitting safe from the freezing wind for a while, and was surprised when she found Weyland sitting there alone. He was struggling, breathing from a portable oxygen bottle.

Weyland lowered his mask.

His power and wealth were instantly dwarfed by his vulnerability.

Chloe looked him over and entered, closing the door, sealing them inside of the Haaglund and separating them from the others. She sat next to him, and they didn't say anything for the longest time, just digesting what the other's knowledge meant.

"You're ill." Chloe finally spoke, breaking the silence.

"My doctors tell me the worst is behind me." Weyland assured her, not looking at her, eyes on his portable oxygen tank.

"When you work for Lionel Luthor you learn the handy ability of discerning when someone's lying to you." Chloe decided to warn him.

He gave a small, tired smile before looking at her. "You know, when you get sick, you think about your life and how you're going to be remembered. You know what I realized would happen when I go? A ten percent fall in share prices. Maybe twelve. And that's it." He shook his head with a wry smile. "I need this."

Chloe sighed and then nodded. "Okay."

He seemed surprised. "You're not going to try and convince me to stay here or on the Piper Maru 'for my own good'?"

"Would you listen to me if I did?" Chloe leaned back against the seat.

"No." He admitted.

"Another thing I learnt while working for Lionel was to know when a person was determined to see something through." Chloe replied, looking out of the windows at the activity going on outside.

"Apparently working for Lionel was quite the learning experience."

Chloe snorted. "You have _no_ idea."

* * *

There was a long, thin viewing window at the front of the spacecraft. Through it there was a majestic view of earth.

Standing against the window were three predators in silhouette, outlined against the blue green globe. There were weapons in their hands.

They were hunters preparing for their hunt.

They assembled their weapons. Metal pieces sliding together to form a Predator spear.

A blade cut through the air, its sharpness being tested. Bandages were wrapped around alien hands, like ancient gladiators preparing for combat. Armor was slipped on, covering legs, face, and torso.

In the background a bank of computer screens lit up the room. Their design all in keeping with the techno-medieval feel of Predator technology.

A grainy image played on the screens. It was a live feed, showing something that was occurring far below on earth.

It was a team of humans standing at the mouth of the tunnel leading towards an underground pyramid.

* * *

A full two-dozen members of the team rappelled down the ice tunnel, helmet lights illuminating the scene. Following them were three large sledges being lowered via the winch and pulley. The sledges contained all the team's heavy equipment.

Lois dropped down parallel to Sebastian.

Jerry was ahead of the group. He pulled out a piton gun to drive pitons on the ice wall, and he hung small lights every twenty feet on the pitons.

Chloe was on the same level as Weyland.

She remembered while in the cave in Romania, who difficult and terrifying this had seemed to her at the time, and yet afterwards she'd trained as she'd promised herself she would, and now she found that she quite enjoyed this.

Stafford lowered himself to the same level as Weyland and Chloe. "Quinn says there's a storm topside."

Weyland frowned. "Will it affect us?"

Lois snorted. "We're 700 feet deep. Quinn could be setting off an atom bomb up there and we'd never notice."

Suddenly the rope that Weyland was on jerked tight and caught the side of the tunnel, smashing Weyland into the ice. For a millisecond everyone believed him safe, but then the rope snapped and he began to hurtle down the steep shaft.

Max and Chloe desperately tried to grab him but they both just missed.

"Man down!" Sebastian called out in horror.

"Lois!" Chloe cried out.

Lois nodded, reaching behind her into one of the sledges and pulling out an ice axe, throwing it down below towards Chloe, who caught it easily.

Without even thinking, instinct took over and Chloe's eyes morphed, going golden and feline, as the tunnel suddenly brightened up like a summer's day and she was able to see everything perfectly. The blonde was glad for the darkness and the distraction, which would both keep people's attention off of her, as she watched Weyland's terrifyingly fast descent as he slid past Jerry, who was also unable to grab him.

Calculating, seeing things in a way no one else would be able to and yet not letting it bother her anymore and it would have once, Chloe grunted and threw the ice axe with all of her might.

It flew through the air, twirling around and around, before making its rapid descent and landing with a terrifying _thud_, embedding itself into the hood of Weyland's parka, and the ice, leaving him hanging safely and stopping his descent.

Chloe's eyes quickly morphed back to normal and she lowered her head, taking in a deep, desperate breath of air.

God, her aiming _sucked_.

A little more downwards and she would have had that ice axe protruding through his _head._

Jerry quickly hurried down to Weyland and reworked his rope, securing him in place.

Weyland turned to look at Chloe.

Everyone did.

"You think that's something?" Lois grinned, causing everyone to look at her and away from the blonde. "You should just _see_ her at throwing darts!"

There were some laughter at that, diffusing the tension and surprise.

Chloe sent her cousin a grateful look.

Lois winked at her and smiled in a way as if saying not to worry and leave it all to her.

"What the hell's going on up there, Quinn?" Stafford snapped into his walkie-talkie.

"A jam in the winching gear." Quinn's voice replied.

"Get it fixed right away!" Stafford hissed.

"No problem." And then Quinn whispered under his breath. "_English Asshole_."

Lois burst out laughing. "I like this man!"

Stafford glared at her.

"Thank you." Weyland had waited for Chloe descend to his level.

"Don't think about it." Chloe replied. "You still have to take me to Jack, so I couldn't have you die, now, could I?"

He smiled at her.

They didn't realize that in the cover of the storm above, a Predator spacecraft approached at an incredible speed, preparing to land---_or_ of the massacre that was about to descend upon those still above.

* * *

**REVIEW?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville/AVP**

Wanna thank **violent-smurf, SriHellgirl25, Ev, vamp1987** and **Veronica** for reviewing the previous chapter.

* * *

In contrast to the deafening storm above, underground, everything was calm, silent. Chloe walked in front of the others, their lights to her back, before letting her eyes morph and lighting up the whole cavern, a gasp of surprise leaving her lips at what she could see.

"What is it?" Lois asked in a whisper, at her side. "What do you see?"

"It's---_beautiful_." Chloe whispered.

Jerry lit a blue flare behind them, illumination the scene of surreal beauty that had Chloe speechless.

They were in an ice grotto, surrounded by giant stalactites and stalagmites made of frozen glacial water. Everything around them shimmered and pulsed in the light of the flare, and the walls were translucent.

But Chloe wasn't looking at that.

Up ahead, the grotto opened out into a bigger ice cave. It was a vast ceiling vaulting off above them into the darkness. No one could tell how big this place was.

Lois pouted, wanting to see whatever it was that had Chloe so spellbound, and yet being unable to due to her own humanity.

"Stafford, be useful for once and get these lights up!" Lois ordered.

He glared at her before turning to his men. "_Connors!_"

"Any second now." The man promised, busy working.

Stafford's men were already unpacking multiple sets of portable floodlights. They began hooking them to power cables, which ran back up the tunnel to generators on the surface.

"I don't understand." Weyland looked around the grotto, breathless from the descent. "No equipment. No sign of another team."

Lois sent a look in Chloe's direction.

"Well, this tunnel didn't dig itself." Stafford pointed out.

"Well _thanks_ for that, Captain Obvious." Lois snarked, turning on him and letting out her frustration on him. "Would you like to point out something _else_ completely obvious? Like the fact that it's fuckin' _cold_?"

"Now listen here you fuckin' _Chihuahua_!" Stafford snapped, pointing his finger menacingly at her. "I've had it up to _here_ with your senseless _yapping_ and if I have to listen to it for one more second---!"

"You point that finger at me again and I'll _bite it off_!" Lois took a menacing step towards him.

"We have power!" Connors' voice broke into the tense moment, and as one, multiple banks of powerful floodlights kicked in.

The sudden reflections from the glacial ice was blinding.

Chloe hissed and she brought up her hand to shield her eyes as they morphed back to normal. Strangely enough, this artificial light felt so unnatural and wrong to her, whereas when it was her mutation giving her the sight it was just so _right_.

It was a little unnerving how natural her mutation seemed to her now.

Lois turned in the direction Chloe had been looking in, curious, and then she froze, stopping dead in amazement. Every single person in the room did the same, all awed.

The pyramid stood towering above them, the hundreds of stone steps covered in shimmering blue ice crystals.

Two thirds of the magnificent structure was fully visible, the rest buried in the translucent walls of the cave.

"_Awesome_." Lois whispered, summing up what everyone else was thinking.

"Congratulations, Mr. Weyland." Chloe turned from the sight to smile at the man. "Looks like you'll be leaving your mark after all."

She and Weyland shared a look, and despite being short on breath, Weyland cracked a broad smile and turned to the group.

"Thank you all for this." He paused for a beat. "Let's make history."

-------------------

The team made their way up the steps towards the entrance chamber, walking into an entrance that was located halfway up the pyramid.

Jerry Murdock looked down and took a bearing on his digital compass.

Chloe paused, illuminating a pictogram showing two creatures locked in combat. "This isn't good."

"You know what this reminds me of?" Lois asked, shining her light on the same pictogram. "Those tiles you said you found above the cave in the old Romanian church. The ones of the Templar knights battling the winged demons?"

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing." Chloe admitted, tracing her fingers over the carvings in the stone. "But none of these are humans."

"Sure they are." Lois leaned over and tapped the one wearing the armor. "That one is _clearly_ humanoid."

"_Humanoid_." Chloe agreed. "Not _human_."

Lois gulped, pulling her hand away immediately. "Maybe we should catch up with the group." She hurried towards where Sebastian and Thomas were examining three lines of ancient hieroglyphics around the entrance.

"I recognize the Egyptian." Thomas announced. "Not the other two though."

"The second line is Aztec. Pre-conquest era." Sebastian cleared, narrowing his eyes. "Third is Cambodian. Looks like a mixture of Bantu and Sanskrit." He caught Lois watching him and smiled. "Impressed?"

She chuckled. "Maybe."

He grinned.

Weyland smiled---for a totally different reason. "Then you were right. The pyramid does contain all three cultures."

"That's what it looks like." Sebastian tore his attention from Lois and turned it to Weyland, excited. "This goes against every history book that's ever been written."

"…You may—choose—to enter." Thomas tried translating the first line. "Those who choose may enter."

"It's like an ancient welcome mat." Miller exclaimed.

Sebastian made a face at Thomas. "Who taught you to translate?"

Thomas snorted. "Funny, he looks just like you."

Sebastian chuckled, shaking his head. "It's not 'choose', partner. It's 'chosen'." He stepped up to examine the writing more closely. "Only the…chosen ones may enter."

From the back of the pack, Chloe narrowed her eyes at those words, even more uneasy than she'd been moments ago.

Verheiden took the first step through the entrance, stepping on an ornate stone tile, which _sunk_ ever so slightly into the ground.

He walked on, not noticing it.

No one did.

Chloe frowned, hearing something distant and faraway, yet unable to locate its precise location or nature.

She knew she didn't like it though, but she doubted anyone would listen to her if she spoke about her doubts, other than Lois of course. The others would think she was a mere female hyperventilating.

Sebastian and Miller were focused on their work while Thomas examined another section of the hieroglyphics.

"I've never seen anything like it." Sebastian admitted to Lois, who was shining the light on the writing for him. "The hieroglyphics look to be some kind of hybrid language…containing both Aztec _and_ Egyptian characteristics."

Miller was near a stone running a basic spectral analysis. "The reading says these stones are at least ten thousand years old."

Sebastian looked at him, doubtful. "That's impossible. Check it again."

Miller turned to him. "I already did."

"Come on people let's get going." Jerry dropped a small strobe light behind him, and then another. They'd burn for at least six hours and help them find their way back just in case something should happen.

Murdock led the team into the next chamber, their flashlights illuminating a large chamber with an impressive vaulted ceiling and bizarre ancient imagery chiseled into the walls.

Seven mummified cadavers lay on seven long stone slabs.

Chloe stopped as soon as her beams fell on them. "This _so_ isn't good."

"These are…" Weyland's eyes widened.

"Sacrificial slabs." Sebastian finished, seeming in awe.

"Just like the Aztecs and the Egyptians." Thomas grinned. "Whoever built this pyramid believe in ritual sacrifice."

Miller studied one of the cadavers. "It's almost perfectly preserved."

"This is where they offered the 'chosen ones' to the gods." Thomas announced, spreading his hands out.

"Those that were chosen would lie here." Sebastian pointed to one of the slabs. "They weren't bound or tied in any way. They went to their deaths willingly…men and women both. It was considered an _honor_."

"The Good Ol' Days, huh?" Lois made a face, running her fingers around a circular, bowl-like indention at the base of the slab. "What's this bowl for?"

Sebastian walked towards her. "Some think it's where the heart was placed after it was torn from the body."

Weyland's flashlight illuminated a stone grate on the bottom of the floor with small holes in it. Stafford struck a flare and dropped it in one of the holes.

It fell and hit something before.

"What have you found, Max?" Weyland asked.

Stafford turned towards him. "It's a shaft to another level. Looks like another room down there."

Weyland illuminated a huge pile of human bones. Most of the skeletons were still intact. "There must be a hundred people there."

"At least." Stafford agreed.

Everyone clustered around the mountain of bleached bones, Chloe more reluctant than the others.

Thomas tried his hand at translating again. "They gave their lives…so that the hunt might begin."

Chloe took two hurried steps backwards.

"What happened here?" Rousseau asked, bending over one of the bodies still on the slabs. A hole had been punched through the bones.

Thomas hurried over towards her. "It was common in ritual sacrifice to take the heart of the victim."

"Oh." Rousseau frowned.

"That's not where your heart is." Chloe couldn't stop herself from saying. "Besides, it looks like the bones were bent straight out." She took in a deep breath. "Something broke _out_ of this body."

Lois looked up, eyes wide, going awfully pale.

Miller was still examining the body he'd found interesting moment ago. "Incredible. The entire skull and spinal column removed in one piece." He held it up for everyone to see. "The cleanness of the cut…remarkable. Straight through bone. No abrasions."

Once again there was that hint of a sound that Chloe could barely hear. "Did anyone hear that?"

The entire team looked around and then looked at her.

Sebastian and Thomas seemed isolated in a pool of light, suddenly looking very small and vulnerable as they stood away from the rest of the team.

There was silence, and then there was a noise. It was faint, nearly imperceptible, but it was still there.

And this time Chloe wasn't the only one who'd heard it.

Miller gulped. "Air...moving through the tunnels…?"

"I don't know." Sebastian answered. "Maybe."

He moved forward, cautiously edging his way towards the source of the noise. The team shone their flashlight, cutting through the gloom like lasers as they illuminated the chamber, Lois making her way towards where Chloe stood.

Sebastian cast multiple shadows on the walls around him.

If anything, the lights were making it even creepier.

Miller started to handle one of the spinal columns hanging on the wall.

Sebastian looked at Miller. "Be careful with that." He then crouched as he continued towards the sound, the ceiling of the back of the chamber clopping down drastically.

Around Sebastian everything was claustrophobic and dark, and then something fell from above and landed on him.

It was a creature with multiple legs and a long tail.

Sebastian fought it away from his face. He fell to the ground and the creature was gone.

Lois hurried towards Sebastian and fell to her knees next to him, and everyone crowded around him to see if he were okay, Chloe's eyes narrowed as she looked for the _thing_.

Spotting it, Chloe walked up to and knelt by the creature, cautious. She reached forwards towards the small creature that had hugged Sebastian's face moments ago and poked it carefully with her flashlight.

Nothing.

It was dead.

Miller knelt down next to her. "Whatever it is, it's been dead a while. The bones have calcified." He tested the legs of what Chloe was going to call a _Face Hugger_. Those legs were rock solid.

Miller turned towards Sebastian, whom Lois was helping to his feet. "You must have dislodged it from a crack in the ceiling."

"No idea how long it's been here but the temperature has kept it preserved." Sebastian announced as he reached them, bending as well. "Looks like some kind of scorpion."

"No." Chloe shook her head. "Climate's too hostile for a scorpion."

Sebastian turned to her. "Ever seen anything like it?"

She took in a deep breath and reached for the Face Hugger, picking it up and turning it in her hands, studying it before shaking her head. "Never."

"Maybe it's a species of scorpion that's never been discovered?" Lois asked hopefully.

Chloe looked at the Face Hugger again, concerned and unsure. "Maybe." She handed the creature to Sebastian and stood up, dusting her hands off before unzipping her jacket.

Thomas looked at her in surprise.

"Haven't you all noticed it?" She asked, shrugging off her jacket and placing it on one of the slabs. "The ambient temperature in here is a lot warmer than ground level."

Now that she mentioned it they seemed to suddenly realize it as well, taking off their jackets as well.

As soon as Lois' jacket came off her hoister and gun were in plain view, but she didn't notice the looks the team were giving her.

Sebastian gulped, clearing his throat. "Uh, why the, uh, gun?"

She looked down at it in surprise, as if having forgotten about it, before looking up, clearly at a loss of what to say.

Chloe stepped forwards, saving Lois as Lois had saved her during the descent. "Not only is Ms. Lane my assistant, but she also has my protection to consider. She would be being remiss in her duties to me if she didn't carry at least one firearm on her, despite the fact that she is perfectly capable of disabling any threat to my life with her mere hands."

"Wow." Thomas blinked. "So she's like a Special Ops or something."

Sebastian looked Lois over with even more interest than before.

Lois beamed under the gaze.

Stafford scoffed.

Lois decided to ignore him…_this_ time.

Weyland turned to Stafford. "Time to move on. Let's move to that lower room, Max."

Stafford nodded and turned to the group. "Time to move on. Ms. Sullivan, do you wish to join us or stay here?"

_In the sacrificial chamber? _She snorted before moving to Weyland's side. "I'll tag along." She turned to look at Lois.

The brunette was giggling at something Sebastian was saying.

"Lois?"

Her cousin turned at the sound of her voice, eyes wide. "Yes Chloe?"

"We're going to go down to the other level." Chloe announced. "Would you like to stay up here and rest?"

"Maybe you would like to rest?" Sebastian asked as he made to go with Chloe, Murdock, Weyland and Stafford.

Lois hesitated, looking at the dark tunnel the others were about to go in.

Chloe, sensing the fear in her stubborn cousin's body, turned to Stafford and gave him a charming smile, resting her hand on his arm. "I know that your people are very professional, but I know that with you, Mr. Stafford, I'll be safe enough. Why don't I just allow Lois to stay behind and keep an eye on the others?"

Lois looked both amused and grateful, not wanting to admit the fact that she'd been too afraid to go any further.

Chloe didn't want her to come either.

If something were to appear in the darkness below, she didn't want her cousin to be in danger.

Stafford looked shocked silly that Chloe was touching him, or giving him such a compliment. He then cleared his throat and nodded, a surprising blush appearing on his face. "Yes, of course. You'll be safe with me."

"Thank you." Chloe smiled before turning to Lois. "Take care of them and yourself, okay?"

"You too." Lois whispered.

Winking at the brunette, Chloe let go of Stafford and followed as Jerry headed down the tunnel.

Hanging back momentarily, Stafford watched her go before shaking his head and turning to the others, refusing to look at Lois, instead talking to Thomas and Rousseau. "You, stay here." He turned to Rousseau. "Stay with him. Keep a team with you." He turned back to Thomas. "Catalogue _everything_."

And with that he hurried after the others.

Thomas took out his digital camera and began filming.

* * *

Quinn stumbled through the whiteout.

He was terrified and alone and not sure what exactly had been unleashed upon them in the fury of the storm.

Unable to see much through the white of the storm, he cried as he ran straight into something, falling backwards down on the ground. Cursing, he rubbed his head and looked up, eyes widening in horror as he realized that what he'd run into was a _dead body_.

It was Klaus…

…Or what was _left_ of Klaus.

Unable to keep looking at the remains of his friend, Quinn looked away, eyes widening as he saw three more bodies. There were all strung up by their ankles, swaying in the wind.

His whole team was dead.

Quinn noticed Klaus' gun half buried in the snow. He reached for it, but as he brought up the Desert Eagle, from out of nowhere a creature appeared, as if having conjured itself from the air itself.

It was large, humanoid in figure, covered in mask and armor, with dreadlocks.

The creature knocked the gun out of Quinn's hand, but Quinn found a piped buried in the snow and picked it up. Unwilling to go down without a fight, and still filled with fury and despair for his fallen teammates---his _family_---he charged the creature, this _predator_, but the creature swatted the pipe away as if it were a toy and backhanded Quinn in the chest.

The human went down hard, stunned by the creature's power.

He picked himself up, unwilling to surrender, but while he was doing so the predator stepped on his leg, snapping it in half like a piece of wood resting on two rocks.

Quinn screamed in agony, his voice mixing with the howling wind.

The predator kicked him in the ribs, sending him into the air and down the mouth of the tunnel, Quinn screaming as he continued to fall at a breakneck speed. His hands grasped desperately at the icy walls, the cabling of the winch system, _anything_ to help slow his descent.

He pulled out his ice axe and struck it into the ice to slow himself down, shards of ice spaying everywhere.

* * *

The cloaked Predator stood above the entrance of the tunnel. His ghostly outline flickered and changed with the eddies in the wind as he let loose a Predator battle cry.

From behind him two more wraiths stepped from the storm.

The three hunters stood together at the mouth of the tunnel, looking down at the darkness, to where their bait and their prey awaited.

The middle Predator activated his wrist computer, and displayed on it was a three dimensional representation of the Pyramid below the ice.

From the very heart of the Pyramid there was an electronic pulse, a homing signal of some kind, which the Predators were clearly following.

The humans.

* * *

Flashlight beams cut through the darkness.

Jerry checked his digital compass. "We should be directly beneath the sacrificial chamber."

Up ahead there was a small amber glow.

Chloe, Weyland, Jerry, Sebastian, Miller, Stafford, Verheiden, Bass, Stone and Connors entered a vast chamber of some kind, where they found the flares Stafford had dropped through the gate in the sacrificial chamber.

Looking upwards they quickly realized that the sacrificial chamber was directly above them, linked by a stone shaft of some kind.

"We're at the heart of the pyramid." Sebastian whispered, clearly in awe.

Chloe narrowed her eyes, noticing something, shining her light on it. "Is that what I think it is?"

The rest of them trained their flashlights on the object as well.

"My god…" Weyland whispered.

In the center of the room lay a Sarcophagus.

They headed towards it, while Stafford lit the ornate room by placing flares in every corner.

Sebastian carefully examined the Sarcophagus. "Some kind of sarcophagus…Egyptian in design…These were built to protect the dead for their journey to the afterworld."

Weyland ran his hand over the Sarcophagus. It was encrusted with ice crystals, glittering in the half-light.

"Max, Verheiden." Weyland spoke up. "Open it."

The men moved to opposite sides of the Sarcophagus. The pushed hard, but the lid wouldn't move. They dug in and pushed with everything they had, but still _nothing_.

"Excuse me." Sebastian cut in.

Stafford and Verheiden took a step back as brains replaced brawn.

Sebastian stood over the Sarcophagus, his flashlight illuminating three metal dials inlaid into the stone.

"So you noticed those too." Chloe announced, going to stand next to him.

Sebastian nodded. "It's some kind of combination lock." He knelt by a line of pictograms and hieroglyphics that ran around the edge of the stone slab, studying the designs. "This is The Long Count…the Mayan calendar. Days, months, years." He looked between the hieroglyphics and the combination lock. "This must be the combination."

"Days…months…years…" Chloe illuminated the three metal dials on top of the Sarcophagus. "But what date?"

"The dials are set for…" Sebastian hesitated for a moment, looking back at Chloe. "1904." He rechecked the hieroglyphics, not quite believing what he was seeing. "Exactly one hundred years ago."

That bad feeling in the pit of Chloe's stomach was growing in intensity. "So someone opened this a hundred years ago?"

Sebastian gave her a look. "Only one way to find out." He turned the first of the metal dials on the top of the Sarcophagus.

It moved slightly.

He turned to look at Chloe again. "What's today's date?"

"Should we really be doing this?" Chloe refused to answer. "In 1904 the people in the whaling station disappeared---maybe after someone decided to open this thing. Do we _really_ want to run the risk of something happening?"

"Of _what_ happening, exactly?" Connors snorted. "Dying of asthma brought on by ancient, cursed dust?"

She glared at him.

"It's October 10th." Miller answered Sebastian's earlier question.

"10…10…2004." Sebastian turned back to the Sarcophagus.

"You sure this is going to work?" Weyland asked, excited.

"I don't know." Sebastian admitted.

Chloe shook her head, realizing that she'd been right.

They weren't going to pay her worries any attention.

As the tension mounted, Sebastian turned the remaining two discs.

The entire team was stunned as the lid to the Sarcophagus began to open under its own power.

Chloe cautiously took a couple of steps backwards as the lid finished opening and slid to a smooth halt.

The interior of the Sarcophagus was dark, so dark one couldn't see within without peering dangerously over the edge.

Chloe wasn't about to be the one to take that chance.

Taking in a deep breath, Sebastian cautiously approached the edge and slowly peered inside. "Take a look at this."

The others crowded around the Sarcophagus. It's interior contained…_guns_.

Chloe narrowed her eyes at this unexpected, and very unsettling, turn of events.

Three futuristic weapons of alien design sat on hoisters inside.

Sebastian spoke quietly, ominously. "The master culture."

* * *

Quinn's body lay near the tunnel entrance. He was covered in frost, appearing as if he'd never regained consciousness after his descent and had frozen to death.

His eyes suddenly popped open. He was alive, but barely. His body temperature was incredibly low and his heart barely beating. He could hardly move.

Suddenly the frost around his face began to crack and melt as this once fearless man sweat with undeniable fear as the three predators appeared at the mouth of the grotto.

They headed straight towards him, and Quinn tried to struggle away from them, but he was frozen stiff. All he could do was watch helplessly as the predators got closer and closer.

He didn't realize that in their heat vision, the half-frozen Quinn was virtually invisible as the bright lights illuminating the pyramid blinded them.

He held his breath, unable to believe it as the predators walked straight passed him, so close that he could reach out and touch them if he'd wanted to---or hadn't been frozen solid.

After a moment, Quinn craned his neck to see where the predators were going.

He saw two shapes headed straight for the Pyramid.

He sighed.

But just when he thought he was safe, he turned around as much as he could and saw the third predator standing right over him.

It had never been fooled, only waiting for Quinn to show himself.

Quinn, frozen, couldn't even scream as the twin blades scythed down towards him.

* * *

**Thus endeth this chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own Smallville/AVP**

Wanna thank **Veronica, vamp1987 **and **ayana45** for reviewing the previous chapter. :D

* * *

Sebastian and Stafford stood over the sarcophagus, staring at the futuristic guns…a little freaked.

"Any idea what those are?" Miller asked.

"Nope." Sebastian shook his head. "You?"

Stafford snorted. "Good thing we bright in the experts.

Chloe narrowed her eyes, beginning to see why Lois disliked him so much. The guy could be kinda annoying when he wanted to be.

Miller turned to him. "_Hey_. We just found the equivalent of a DVD player in Moses' living room. Why don't you give us a second to figure it out?"

Stafford raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Well to me it looks like sophisticated weaponry. And I didn't need a fancy _degree_ to figure that out all on my very own."

Chloe turned to Weyland, frowning when she realized he was having a hard time breathing. The older man pulled out his hand-held portable oxygen bottle and took a shot into his lungs.

Sebastian noticed this, narrowing his eyes in worry. "Is he okay?"

Stafford nodded. "Just Asthma."

Miller sighed, eyes still on the guns. "Let me see if I can get a base reading off of the metal." He stepped up and started a basic spectral analysis of the metal, careful not to disturb the guns. His hand-held computer started processing the information. "There are two chemicals here. Tilanium and Cadmium."

"Never heard of them." Sebastian admitted.

Chloe had.

Her stomach went queasy immediately. "They're found in meteorites."

"Meteorites?" Sebastian turned to her.

Miller nodded. "Whatever these are, they weren't made here."

Sebastian's eyes widened. "When you say here, you mean…?"

"He means _earth_." Chloe answered, leaning against the wall with a sigh. "Why does this always happen to me?"

Sebastian sent a curious look in Chloe's direction.

Verheiden, and everyone else, looked nervous and uncomfortable.

Stafford, looking at Weyland, realized that the older man really wasn't doing well, and sighed. "This is enough for today. We'll set base camp tonight at the whaling station and we'll get back at it first thing tomorrow."

Jerry nodded, looking at his digital compass.

Stafford turned to his boss. "What should we do about the guns, Mr. Weyland?"

He thought about it for a second. "Take them. We can run further tests on the surface."

Chloe snatched her hands from her face in horror at those words. "No! Don't touch them!"

And yet it was too late.

Connors reached into the sarcophagus and grabbed the first two guns, Stafford reaching in and grabbing the final one. When the weight of Stafford's gun was removed from its place inside the chamber, a hidden trigger underneath it was activated with a deafening _click_.

The sound echoed around the chamber.

Everyone shared concerned looks.

Except for Chloe.

She was incensed.

"I told you idiots not to touch them!"

For a moment there was nothing, and then it happened.

The walls of the chamber began to move, sealing up the old entrances and revealing brand new passageways into and out of the chamber.

"Watch out!" Sebastian cried. "The doors! Look out!"

Past the others Weyland stood before what used to be a solid wall, and yet now it was open to a long, dark corridor.

"Sebastian." Miller gulped, looking around him in fear. "This happens in all pyramids, right?"

"No." Sebastian whispered, just as confused and frightened as Miller.

A large block of stone quickly started to slide down and seal the entrance before anyone could get out.

Despite the fear she felt for herself, Chloe could only look up at the gate between them and the sacrificial chamber, wishing to hell that she'd never left Lois behind.

If something happened to her cousin she'd never forgive herself.

* * *

In the sacrificial chamber, Rousseau, Thomas, Lois and four other scientists braced themselves as the walls began to move. The entrances to the chamber began to be sealed up by huge blocks of stone that slid down form the ceiling.

Lois was the first to get out of her shocked state. "Get something under there!" She pointed to the main exit.

Rousseau, Thomas, and two scientists pushed a large metal case under the door but it was hopelessly crushed.

"You okay?" Thomas asked Rousseau.

Perplexed, the blonde doesn't answer, looking at the walls that had just moved. "We're trapped."

Lois looked down at the small gate that separated the sacrificial chamber from the chamber Chloe had gone in.

She closed her eyes and growled in self-hate, slamming her fist sideways into the wall closest to her.

_I should have sucked up my fear and gone with her!_

If something happened to her cousin she'd never forgive herself.

* * *

At the entrance chamber, the Predators stopped for a moment, one checking his wrist computer.

The nature of the homing signal had changed since the last check. The electronic pulse had become more frantic and insistent.

The Predators exchanged concerned looks.

This clearly hadn't been a part of the plan.

As one, the Predators took off running, sprinting desperately into the Pyramid.

* * *

In the sacrificial chamber Lois, Thomas, Rousseau and the four other scientists struggled with the stone blocking the entrance.

Their attempts were in vain, and somewhat pathetic.

"Slab's gotta weigh two tons." Rousseau decided as they all pulled back, tired. "We'll never move it."

Thomas turned with a sigh and then froze. "What's that?"

They all turned to see what in the world he was talking about.

At the bottom of the sacrificial slabs, beneath the mummified bodies, large alien-looking Eggs had suddenly appeared out of seemingly no where while they'd had their backs turned, preoccupied with trying to free themselves.

They sat snugly in the bowl shaped indention that Lois had observed earlier. The stone slabs themselves were silently splitting apart, allowing the Eggs to rise up into the indentations from within.

"There." Lois pointed. "And another."

"There's another." Rousseau whispered, pointing as well.

Now all seven sacrificial slabs had an Egg on them.

There was silence, as the humans within the chamber were too scared to even draw breath.

And then the first Egg began to open.

"This can't be good." Lois whispered, pulling out her handgun and training it on the Egg.

One by one the other Eggs began to open.

Rousseau quickly followed Lois' example, pulling out her own gun, keeping it at her side. "What did they say this room was called again?"

Thomas's voice was soft and scared. "The Sacrificial Chamber."

At those words the blonde brought up her handgun but it was too late. The same creature that they'd seen before but fossilized, which Chloe had dubbed a _Face Hugger_, had jettisoned out of the Egg and was immediately airborne. The other six Face Huggers launched themselves simultaneously.

Lois, who'd already had her gun trained, shot at the creature jumping towards her, killing it, and the force of the shot sending it flying backwards and away from her.

The others weren't that lucky.

She turned to Roussau to see the Face Hugger flying towards her, her face frozen in terror, before it completed its flight and slammed into the blonde's face, smothering her mouth, muffling her screams.

The same fate befell those around Lois.

Muffled screams filled the sacrificial chambers as those around her fell.

Lois went to help, but the creatures weren't letting go, wrapping their tails around their victims' throats, refusing to let go, peeling the skins off of their victim's faces when she tried to force them off.

In the end Lois was forced to back off, horrified.

"CHLOE!" She screamed, rushing to the grate on the floor and falling on her knees before it, fingers entwining in the gaps. "_CHLOE!_"

Hearing a sizzling sound, Lois turned to see the Face Hugger she'd shot. It was bleeding green blood…green blood that was slowly eating through the stone ground.

Acid.

Whatever these fuckers were they had blood made from _acid_.

Lois turned back to the grate. "_CHLOE!_"

* * *

As Jerry prepared to lead the team down the long dark corridor, bursts of bright light filled the room from above as it sliced through the slates of the grate like lasers.

"Jerry!" Miller turned to their guide. "What's going on?"

Chloe grabbed Stafford's walkie-talkie from him and spoke into it. "Lois? Lo! Come in Lois! Can you here me?"

Sebastian was using his walkie-talkie to try and get into contact with Thomas, but with the same results.

Fear began to spread around the chamber.

Chloe turned on Weyland. "Is there _anything_ you didn't tell me about this place?"

He shook his head, honestly as confused and scared as everyone else. "Nothing. I swear I have no idea what this is."

"Well, whatever it is, were not prepared for it." Jerry announced. "We're going to round up the rest of the team and get to the surface. Let's move."

Chloe stared down the long dark corridor behind Weyland, trying the walkie-talkie once more. "Lois? Come on Lois. _Answer_ goddamit!"

Stafford and Connors opened an equipment case. From within the started to take an arsenal of heavy weapons. Bass, Stone and Verheiden joined them, picking up their weapons.

"What are you doing?" Jerry asked.

As if it weren't obvious enough.

"My job." Stafford explained. "Yours is over." He slammed a magazine home into his MP-5, performing a lock and load with rapid precision.

Chloe reached down into her boot and pulled out her much smaller, and yet quite powerful, and fully loaded gun.

Miller blinked. "Is _everyone_ packing heat on this expedition but me?" He turned to Sebastian. "Are_ you_ going to pull out an Uzzi from your knickers or something?!?!"

Sebastian shook his head. "I also didn't realize an arsenal would be needed for an archeological expedition."

"Bugger." Miller whispered.

"I told you, when I lead a team, I don't leave my team." Jerry glared at Stafford. "My job is over when everyone is back on the boat safely and that gun doesn't change anything."

"Mister Weyland?" Stafford asked.

Weyland looked between both men before sighing. "He knows the way out. You and your crew back him up."

Stafford nodded, following orders.

Around the room a series of machine guns were quickly loaded, the sound of the mechanical loading and cocking of the guns echoed throughout the long corridor.

Stafford turned to Jerry. "After you."

The guide consulted his digital wrist compass. "This bearing should take us back to the entrance. We make it to the surface and we regroup at the Whaling station."

"What about the others?" Chloe asked, stepping forwards. "I'm not leaving without Lois."

"We'll find them on the way out." Jerry promised before leading them through the long corridor.

Stafford turned to his men. "Stone…Verheiden…Cover our backs!"

Chloe walked, gun in one hand, walkie-talkie on the other. She closed her eyes for a second while taking in a deep breath and talking into the machine. "Lois…if you can hear this…we're coming there, okay? We're making our way towards you…just…stay safe until then."

* * *

"_Lois…if you can hear this…we're coming there, okay? We're making our way towards you…just…stay safe until then_."

From where she was hiding, completely covered by the hundreds of skeletons, Lois listened to the voice of her cousin coming from the walkie-talkie in the middle of the room, letting out a breath of relief knowing that Chloe was fine and coming for her.

The brunette had quickly grabbed Rousseau's gun and made a dive for the skeletons, covering herself completely and hiding when another set of Eggs had begun to appear at the bottom of the sacrificial slabs.

There was _no way_ she was going to let those fuckers give her the tongue!

From her hiding spot, Lois had watched as the Face Huggers had all dropped off of each other victims' faces, seeming to fall dead next to their still bodies.

She didn't move.

Suddenly there was a groan, and Rousseau awoke, clutching herself as if in agony.

Even though every fiber in Lois' body told her to rush out and help the woman, she could hear Chloe's voice in her head, like an instinct, telling her to remain hidden.

Rousseau clawed at her chest, frantically, and Lois' eyes widened in horror as she saw it beginning to bulge out. The brunette suddenly remembered what Chloe had said about the cadavers on the sacrificial slabs…

_'Something broke out of this body.'_

It was only because she was too numb from terror that Lois couldn't find a voice to scream when, with a spurt of blood, a creature burst out of Rousseau's chest.

* * *

In the Sarcophagus chamber, now empty, an optical blur entered, and minutes later a Predator materialized, dropping its optical camouflage. The creature stared down into the sarcophagus, hands on the edges, gaze on the empty container.

It stood there in shock for a moment, unable to process what had happened.

The Plasma Guns were missing.

The _humans_ had taken them.

This had never been recorded as happening in any of the many hunts they had had as a civilization!

The Predator intensified the amplitude of his heat vision.

Slowly, boot prints began to appear on the floor, it was the residual heat left by the human thieves. The tell-tale prints led away from the sarcophagus into a long, dark corridor.

The Predator howled in anger before beginning to follow the human footprints, determination in his every stride.

* * *

Chloe's flashlight illuminated a gigantic statue…and then another…and _another_. The whole corridor was lined with them.

Each statue was a predator-like warrior carved out of stone. Chloe's green gaze observed the statues intently, realizing that they were the same creature that'd been carved into the walls of the entrance chamber…the ones that'd been battling the serpent-shaped monsters.

These were humanoid in shape, though much large than a human being in size. Their heads were larger and they were wearing massive helmets. They were fierce, frightening, and very powerful looking hunters.

"Dear God." Sebastian whispered.

Many of the statues also showed, what Chloe could only call the perfect Predator, engaged in combat with another species…which Chloe decided could only be alien. Everything that happened to her had something to do with aliens, and considering that the weapons they were now carrying were alien in nature…well…yes.

In her mind they were Predator and Alien.

In the statues that depicted battle, they portrayed the Predators battling the Aliens as if they were George fighting the Dragon.

Stafford stared at another elaborate drawing which showed the Predators carrying distinctive weapons----the very same ones the humans were carrying at the moment.

"_So_ not good." Chloe sighed, shaking her head and going up towards him, looking at the drawings. "Recognize what's on their shoulders?"

Sebastian examined the walls of the chamber, where there were ancient painted murals depicting humans kneeling in supplication before the Predators.

"We worshipped these things?" Stafford made a face of disgust.

"According to this we did." Sebastian looked up. "And the artifacts you removed from the sarcophagus seem to be their weapons."

Chloe sighed. "It makes sense now."

"What does?" Sebastian asked, turning to her.

"This is their shrine, their temple." Chloe ran a hand over her head. "We're _their_ sacrifices."

Everyone went pale at the thought.

"The heat bloom that your satellite detected makes much more sense now." Miller finally spoke up.

"What do you mean?" Weyland asked.

"A building this sophisticated would require a major energy source." Miller explained. "That's what the satellite detected, the power plant for this Pyramid firing up…preparing."

"For what?" Weyland wanted to know.

_For us_. Chloe thought. _'They gave their lives so the hunt could begin'._

Jerry consulted his digital compass. "Let's get moving. Just another 200 yards to the entrance."

They nodded, everyone continuing on.

Stone brought up the rear, MP-5 in hand. A noose suddenly dropped around his neck, pulled tight, and dragged him into the air, killing him silently.

His MP-5 fell from his lifeless hands and clattered to the ground.

Everyone turned at the sound in time for a spear to impale Bass, the force hurling him back with astonishing force, pinning him to the stone wall.

"Get down!" Stafford ordered.

Chloe quickly dropped to the ground, aiming her handgun in the dark around them, not exactly sure where the attack was coming from or _what_ it was coming from.

"What the hell was that?!?" Connors cursed from the ground.

Eyes morphing to better view the room and have a better idea of what they were facing, Chloe gasped as she saw a throwing disc spinning through the air, heading towards an oblivious Sebastian.

"Sebastian!" She screamed. "Get _down_!"

The scientist couldn't see what she could, but he dropped down immediately, the flying disc hurtling past him. It struck a Predator statue behind him, cutting through the stone as if it were paper.

The head of the statue crashed to the ground.

Neatly decapitated.

The fate that Sebastian had narrowly avoided.

Max carried an MP-5 in both hands, firing at an optical blur running across the chamber. Verheiden was also firing, filling the chamber with the deafening sound of gunfire.

Chloe's eyes narrowed on a blurred movement in front of her across the room.

There was something there, and it knew she knew it was there.

Chloe kept her gun trained on it and yet didn't fire, waiting, almost sensing its curiosity as it gazed at her and her golden, slightly glowing, inhuman eyes.

It didn't know what was in front of, and that unnerved it and gave Chloe somewhat of an edge.

"The Pyramid!" Weyland cried out as the world began to shake once more. "It's shifting again!"

"The doors are closing!" Miller called out.

"Let's get out of here!" Sebastian hurried to his feet.

The Pyramid started to reconfigure once more. Thick stone slabs began to slide out from the wall, sub-dividing the chamber and splitting the human team into four separate groups, each trapped in their own nearly created cell.

Stafford, Weyland, Jerry and Sebastian in one, Verheiden and Miller in another, and Connors by himself in yet another.

Chloe had been separated from the rest of the group, with only Bass' speared body for company. She closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and brought her gun to her forehead to try and keep her wits to herself.

She also tried to ignore the tantalizing scent of blood that her mutation always found so appealing, and concentrate on her situation at the moment.

Yes, she was alone, but at least she was safe from the Predators for now.

She needed to remain calm so she could think things through rationally.

The blonde turned to Bass' body and after kicking at the wall when she realized that his MP-5 was nowhere to be seen, she was shocked to realize that his backpack was still there.

Bass, Stone and Stafford had been the ones carrying the guns---which, now that she thought of it, explained the attack.

The Predators had wanted their weapons back, so they'd gone after the humans to retrieve them.

"I doubt I'll be able to use it. But it might just come in handy…maybe for trading purposes? They obvious need this." Chloe reasoned, slicing the straps of the backpack and placing the bag on the ground before transferring the gun into her backpack.

She then turned to Bass' body once more, and stared at the spear protruding from it, pinning it to the wall.

"_Hello!_" She could hear Connors pounding against the walls faint, screaming at the top of his voice. "_Help me! Somebody! Get me out of here!"_

Biting on her bottom lip, Chloe knew that she had a gun, but there were only so many bullets that it could fire before running out.

The blonde sighed and walked towards the body once more, wrapping her hands around the strong yet thin material of the spear, placing one foot against the opposite wall and giving it a _tug_.

It was embedded deep within the wall, refusing to come out.

Well, she refused to give up.

Chloe grit her teeth and continued to yank, reaching further forwards to try and get a better grip on it, and her hand came down on something moist and slippery.

Her whole body went tense immediately as Chloe brought her hand to her nose and breathed in the scent of blood, a part of her sickened by the fact that she could pick up the deliriously addictive scent under the strong metallic that humans could only smell.

Hand trembling from the force she was putting into controlling herself and her mutation's reaction to the scent of blood not only permeating the air but on _herself_ as well, Chloe closed her eyes tightly, and when they opened they were feline slits of the purest gold, more defined than they'd ever been.

With a growl she returned her hands to the spear, tightened her hold, and gave a powerful yank, pulling it out of the wall and body, Bass falling lifelessly to the ground.

Chloe collapsed to her knees, holding the spear in the hand not covered in Bass' blood.

She felt a little prick/sting in that hand and hissed, turning her attention to the combo spear, watching as it began to glow slightly, shaking, before transforming to a smaller version of its ridiculously large self.

Now it was much lighter, and way easier to handle.

Wiping Bass' blood on his shirt, Chloe got up and transferred the spear to the now clean hand, testing its weight and such, grinning.

This was kinda cool.

She gave the combo spear a little shake, and it transformed before her eyes again, going into a small, compact version that could easily fit on her belt hoop.

"Whoa."

With another experimental shake, Chloe watched as metal slid and extended, forming the extended spear, which was a perfect size for her while in combat.

Another shake.

It was its compact version.

"This is just too _cool!_" Chloe giggled, delighted like a child at Christmas despite the situation. She pulled out the walkie-talkie and brought it to her lips. "Lois…I'm coming. And I've got a brand new toy!"

Unfortunately, the others trapped in their own cells weren't having as good a time as she was.

* * *

"What are those things?" Verheiden asked from the little cell he shared with Miller. "Did you see what they did to Bass and Stone?" He snapped his fingers. "I hit that son of a bitch. Dead on. He didn't stop…didn't slow down. _Hell_, he didn't even _flinch_!"

"Hey!" Miller exclaimed, jarring the man out of his terrified tirade. "Verheiden!"

"What?" Verheiden looked up at him.

"I'm no soldier, but…I think you should calm down." Miller replied slowly but with determination. "We're not dead yet."

Verheiden nodded, sighing, a little calmer at that reminder. "Thanks."

Miller smiled. "Think nothing of it."

They stayed in silence, the claustrophobia of the cell finally eating away at Verheiden. He stood and bean pacing the room, making it seem smaller than it already was.

"We're never going to get out of this place." Once again Verheiden had sunk into depression and fear.

"Don't say that." Miller sighed from where he was sitting on the ground, back leaned against a wall.

"Whatever you believe in, you should start praying to it, doctor." Verheiden told him as he continued to pace.

"Hey." Miller called to him. "You have children?"

The soldier paused at the question, turning to look at the spaghetti of a man with the enviable inner calm. "A son."

"I have two." Miller admitted with a smile. "You know what that means? We don't have the luxury of quitting. We're going to make it out of here. You hear me? We're going to survive this if I have to drag you the whole way."

Verheiden looked at Miller in awe.

When had the nerd become the leader?

* * *

In the closed in cell, Sebastian, Jerry, Weyland and Stafford were completely cut off with no exit in sight. They were silent, worrying about their situation and about those they'd been separated from.

Suddenly the alarm on Sebastian's' watch went off, loud and proud in the silence of the cell. The sudden sound made everyone jump.

"What is that?" Jerry asked.

Sebastian silenced the alarm. "Just a theory."

In the distance a sound like rolling thunder could be heard.

As it got closer, the noise refined…it was the sound of stone scraping against stone.

Sebastian stood. "The Aztec calendar was metric based on multiples of ten. I'm guessing that the pyramid reconfigures every ten minutes."

Weyland and Stafford got to their feet as a stone slab slid into the roof, revealing a brand new exit from the cell.

The labyrinth awaited.

They eye one another, sharing the concern of the unknown that lay ahead, and then they moved one by one, as a team.

* * *

From her hiding place, Lois had seen every stage of these alien freaks.

First there were the Face Huggers, then there were the Chest Bursters, and then there were the salivating, horrendous, fully grown aliens that ran out of the room as soon as they could.

She was only lucky that they hadn't found her yet...a couple had come dangerously close though.

The next set could find her and she didn't want to think of what would become of her.

So even though Chloe had told her to remain there, Lois took in a deep breath and surged out of the skeletons, sending bones tumbling down all around her. She dove for the walkie-talkie and shot at a couple of Face Huggers that jettisoned out of their eggs at her, before escaping out of the birthing room.

"Chloe!" She screamed into the walkie-talkie as she ran desperately, not knowing where she was going, but knowing that she had to get away from there and find her cousin. "Chloe! Come in Chloe!"

There was static.

"_Lois_?" A relieved voice asked on the other end. "_Thank god_. Lois! Are you okay? Listen to me. The humanoids are real! They attacked us! And I'm guessing the aliens are real too!"

"Oh, they're real alright!" Lois announced, taking another corner rapidly. "I've seen them with my own eyes! Chloe, everyone else here is dead!"

She then came to an abrupt stop, seeing a shadow shift down the corridor. "Chloe?" She whispered in fear, hearing a growl. "Chloe, where are you?"

She aimed her gun and began firing wildly as the creature charged her.

"_Lois_?" Chloe's voice was worried.

Suddenly the world shook around Lois, causing her to fall on her butt. Slabs of stone came up behind and in front of her, trapping her inside but also saving her from what had been on the other side.

"I---don't let the Face Huggers get you." Lois spoke, voice shaky. "They use humans like breeding animals and then pop out of their chests."

"_The holes in the cadavers' chests._" Chloe whispered.

"_And_, the adult aliens, they're like snakes, and their blood is like acid. Don't let them bleed on you." Lois spoke, leaning against the wall, legs shaky. "Chloe, how are we going to find each other if the pyramid keeps shifting?"

"_Remember those chips we had inserted under our skin two months ago to help us bypass LexCorp security without having to remember passwords or use retinal scans or fingerprint scans_?" Chloe asked.

Lois frowned, hand going to the back of her neck. "Yeah?"

"_Its connected to the program on our watches. Activate the homing device by pushing in the design on the top. You'll see where I am, I'm doing the same to you. No matter how this thing shifts, we head towards that red dot._"

Lois did as told, seeing the red dot appear and begin to beep. "I see you! You're not that far from here!"

"_I told you I was coming_." Chloe declared, before going serious. "_Lois, the humanoids are really sophisticated. They have armor and some sort of cloaking system that makes them almost invisible, except you can kinda make them out because they looks like the background, but blurred."_

"Not fair." Lois pouted.

There was gasp. "_Lois---I---I have to go_."

Lois looked at the walkie-talkie, bringing it to her forehead. "_Be careful Chlo_."

* * *

**Review?**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/AVP**

Wanna thank **vamp1987, violent-smurf**, and **Shadow Girl** for reviewing the previous chapter :D

* * *

A stone slab slid back, revealing a brand new chamber duct.

Verheiden and Miller exchanged looks before Miller cleared his throat and moved to peer into the dark crawl space. He lowered his head and began to crouch forwards, the duct narrow and tight, only a foot or two wider than his shoulders.

"It would seem that we're rats in a maze." Miller commented.

Verheiden glared at the scientist, annoyed that Miller was taking all this better than he was.

"Sorry." Miller sighed, sending the glare on his back, before beginning the slow crawl into the darkness, listening as Verheiden began to curse loudly in his own language before beginning to crawl in after him.

* * *

Connors made his way through a maze of pitch black ducts, having been released from his stone cell by the shifting of the walls. He carried a flashlight in one hand and an ice axe in the other.

Every fifty feet the duct split into two, becoming a bewildering array of possibilities, or dead ends.

Cursing swiftly when he dropped his flashlight, Connors reached down and found it, face turning disgusted as he felt some slimy residue completely covering it.

Puzzlement turned to fear.

Something was in there with him.

He stayed, silent, breathing rapid and scared, trying to hear since in the darkness he couldn't see much of anything.

The faint sound of voices reached his ears, and his heart raced, finally recognizing them as Miller and Verheiden.

He wasn't going to be alone anymore!

"Hello!" He called out, hopeful. "Can you hear me?"

"Who is that?" Miller called out.

Connors let out a breath of relief. "It's Connors! Where are you?"

With all the many different branches in this duct system they could be _anywhere_.

As could whatever had slimed on his flashlight.

Petrified for a second with that knowledge Connors began to crawl rapidly in the direction he believed to have heard the voices. He couldn't be alone anymore, he just _couldn't_!

Rounding the corner, Connors crawled smack into something large and steely. He fell back, disoriented, before a growl echoed through the duct.

His eyes widened in horror, and he shakily aimed his flashlight at what he'd run into.

* * *

As Miller and Verheiden continued to make their way through the pitch black duct, they froze as Connors' screams reached them, echoing around them, confusing them as to where exactly it was coming from.

"Connors!" Verheiden cried out.

Miller lead Verheiden through the ducts because the nerd was now the recognized alpha of the two, the spaghetti of a man hurrying towards the sound of Connors' screams until they were silenced.

Suddenly, a trap door opened and Verheiden fell through, closing up behind him.

"Verheiden? _Verheiden!_" Miller somehow found a way to turn around in the duct and pounded on the area where the trap door had grabbed his companion. "Verheiden, can you _hear_ me?"

"Miller!" Verheiden's voice could be heard, faintly. "Get me out of here!"

"Hold on!" Miller called back down. "I'll figure a way to get to you!"

"_Miller_?" Verheiden whispered, and then a moment later his horrifying screams reached Miller, along with the inhuman screeches from the same chamber.

Miller closed his eyes, banging his fist against the trap door, as the screams die to nothing.

The scientist drew in a breath and opened his eyes, continuing forwards, for Verheiden.

* * *

Cloaked, the Predator watched as the female came to a stop, sensing the creature around the same time he did. This female, neither of human nor predator nor serpent species, was a mystery, and with her carrying one of the Plasma Guns, she was considered a danger until it was determined whether she could use one or not.

She put away the device she'd been using to talk to another, presumably of her race, before aiming a much smaller, much less impressive and more archaic version of the predator weapon. She started shooting towards the serpent as it rushed her, hissing and hungry.

One of the bullets hit the creature in the shoulder, and it hissed, drawing up, blood dripping.

The Predator moved deeper into his hidden nook.

While he himself was here for a hunt of the great serpents, he also found them up against another race and he wanted to know exactly what they could expect out of her.

"Ran…bullets." She snapped, his voice translator trying to compute what she was saying and translate it into his language, and yet she was speaking too rapidly for it to catch everything.

Still, when the tiny female _threw _her gun at the serpent, the Predator got the whole gist of the comment.

The female's glowing, feline eyes narrowed and she reached for something on her belt, pulling it out and giving it a commanding, sure shake.

The Predator's eyes widened in shock as the combo spear one of his fellow hunters had lost transformed before his very eyes, and yet it was different than when Celtic used it. It was shorter, having obviously taken some of this creature's blood and modified itself to better suit her strengths.

It had _bonded_ with her.

Those spears only bonded with blooded _warriors_, which were why they only transformed like this _after_ a successful hunt.

Either this female had already killed a serpent---or she'd killed before---or the spear sensed something within her that was a natural born hunter, predator, and didn't require her to prove it as each young male predator was forced to do by going through these rituals.

Either way, it proved his instinctual feeling that this female needed to be kept an eye on, correct.

The serpent charged her again with force and speed, and yet the female easily dodged the move and its swinging, piercing tail, slicing off said appendage with her spear.

Blood gushed everywhere.

Some even landed on her, burning at her shirtsleeve and arm, and even her cheek.

The girl's eyes narrowed, flashing brightly gold…and suddenly the scarred skin began to glow and _heal right up in front of them_.

The Predator's eyes widened.

It'd never seen anything like this before!

The female twirled the spear, eyes narrowed and on the serpent, which was shrieking at the loss of its tail, trembling, in fury and in unimaginable pain.

The blonde seemed to be thinking, calculating, and the she threw the spear---it didn't even reach the serpent, imbedding itself in the ground between them.

The Predator was surprisingly enough, disappointed.

He'd expected something better of someone who'd bonded with the combo spear.

The serpent let out a shriek, almost like laughter, before charging the now defenseless females, racing passed the spear.

The female remained her ground, seeming to be counting something. And then, as the serpent lowered its head to bite at her she sprang upwards and _jumped over its head_, stopping on it and then curling in her body as she tumbled down the serpent's back, pushing away from the body and blood-gushing tail when she reached its the hip.

Landing crouched by the spear, she pulled it out and threw it with all her might, imbedding it through the back of the serpent's neck, the blade protruding out of its throat.

The female gave a chuckle as the creature collapsed to its knees.

"Not…so…hard." She stood over it, careful to avoid the blood, before planting one foot on the base of its head and pulling the spear out with one easy motion. "You…don't even…fly."

The tip of the spear was corroded by the blood of the serpent.

The Predator knew she wouldn't be able to use it anymore.

But then, before its eyes, the spear began to glow, and just like with her damaged skin it healed, looking even sharper and better than before.

"Cool." The female grinned, obviously not realizing that that wasn't normal. She then looked at her wristwatch, at a red dot, and then around her before taking the tunnel that would carry her in that direction.

Scar took off his cloaking device and looked at the large serpent she'd so easily felled.

He then looked up in the direction the female had disappeared into, and reactivated his camouflaging cloak, following.

He still needed that Plasma Gun anyway.

* * *

Jerry, Sebastian, Weyland and Stafford made their way through the dark underground maze. Stafford was ahead on point with his MP-5 machine gun, while Jerry continued checking his digital compass.

"If we can stay on this bearing, we should keep going up." The guide announced, looking up from his wrist. "If we can do that, we'll make it back to the entrance."

Sebastian noticed that Weyland was struggling further back. The older man buckled under the weight of his backpack---the one containing the alien weapon, which he'd had Stafford give to him.

"Leave it." Sebastian told the old man, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It can only slow us down."

Weyland shook his head. "Too much has been lost to walk away with nothing."

De Rosa sighed. "Give it to me." He took the pack from Weyland and put it on, before reaching down a hand and exchanging a smile with the ill man as he helped him to his feet.

Up ahead, Stafford signaled the group to halt. He beamed his flashlight into the obscurity just as a Predator emerged from the darkness.

Jerry's eyes widened.

Max began firing immediately, but the Predator also shot. Seeming to materialize in mid air, heading towards Stafford, was a _steel net_. It knocked the man off of his feet and enveloped him completely, causing him to scream as the net pulled tighter and tighter around him relentlessly.

The steel mesh cut into Stafford's clothing and equipment, slicing through metal as if it were paper.

Weyland struggled with the net, trying to help his right hand man, but only managed to lacerate his own hands. The mesh was just too razor-sharp.

Sebastian tried to cut at the net with a knife, but the blade snapped against the strength of the Predator steel.

Even though he was in considerable pain, Max was still looking out for them. "Behind you!"

They turned to see what he was talking about, in time to witness a second, cloaked Predator appear behind them, sending them crashing to the ground with a ferocious backhand.

Jerry threw a stone at it.

The Predator turned to the guide and talked towards it, pulling out a throwing blade from his belt, and the creature didn't even throw it. With a swift slicing movement of his hand through the air, blood spurt, and the guide collapsed to his knees, hands on his blood-gushing throat, before falling, dead.

Seeming pleased, the Predator raised his spear, aiming it at a struggling Stafford, ready to finish him off.

The human was held fast in the ever-tightening net. He shared a look with Weyland, only a foot away from him, winded and helpless on the ground.

"MAX!" Weyland screamed out.

It was the last thing Stafford heard, as the Predator drove its spear clear through the net. The force was so that strong that the spear embedded itself into the rock floor beneath Stafford.

The two Predators turned to the two remaining humans, ready to finish them off.

Suddenly the Predator standing the furthest from them, the one who'd shot the steel net at Stafford, began to _convulse_. Its cloaking devise began to spark, the creature becoming fully visible. The sparking spread out from the Predator's chest as he was _lifted into the air_.

Blood dripped down from its twitching body, green, luminescent blood.

As the creature hanging in the air became fully visible, Sebastian gasped as he realized that something had _impaled_ the creature. A wicked barbed tail stuck straight through the Predator's chest.

Slowly, an alien unfolded from its hiding place in the ceiling. It had stabbed the Predator, the sharp point of its tail going clean through the Predator's armored chest.

Only now did the second Predator register the Alien. He turned his back on the humans, no longer interested, setting his sights on bigger game and looking quite anxious to get this fight on the way.

The Alien tossed aside the dead Predator hanging from its tail.

As Sebastian crawled towards Weyland, helping him as they slowly made their way towards the exit, the Predator uncloaked and the two fearsome alien warriors faced off.

There was a long moment of tense anticipation, and then the two creatures charged each other viciously, meeting with a mighty impact.

The Alien's tail stabbed at the Predator, which the humanoid easily deflected with his twin wrist blades, slicing clean through the tail. The Alien howled in pain.

The Predator tried to stab the Alien, but the twin blades had been reduced to smoldering stumps by the Alien's apparently acid blood.

Sebastian helped Weyland to his feet, and the two of them stumbled hurriedly out of the chamber, completely unnoticed by the two creatures.

The two beasts grappled, rolling end over end. The twin mouths of the Alien snapped at the Predator's faceplate but the Predator held the Alien off, the teeth of the inner mouth barely inches away from his eyes.

Flinging the Alien off, the Predator stood, gaining a moments grace.

The Alien was much stronger than he had ever imagined.

The Alien charged again.

This time the Predator was ready, firing a steel net that arced through the air and enveloped the Alien, bringing it crashing to the ground. The net pulled tight, cutting through the Alien's armored hide.

The Predator roared in triumph, quite pleased with itself due to what it considered a sure kill. But as the net cut through the Alien, the Alien began to bleed, and as the Alien bled, the net began to smoke as its blood began to eat through the steel mesh.

Suddenly the large serpent broke free, its whole body smoking from where the net had cut into it.

Caught off guard, the Predator's reactions were sluggish and immediately the Alien was on him.

On the ground, pinned down by the Alien, the Predator tried to struggle, and yet couldn't do anything but watch helplessly as the alien's inner mouth punched clean through his faceplate.

The stone corridor was sprayed with brain matter and luminous green blood.

The scarred Alien threw it head back and roared with the final victory of the battle.

First blood to the aliens.

* * *

As the beeping got louder, Chloe turned the corner and stopped when she saw Lois hurrying towards her, the brunette stopping as well. The cousins looked at each other in painful relief, tears coming to their eyes.

"_Lois_."

"_Chloe_."

Chloe made to go towards her cousin, when suddenly Lois gasped, and the scent of blood filled the air as the brunette collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

Behind her, a fully grown alien pulled its barbed tail out from the back of Lois' head.

"_No_." Chloe whispered, body shaking.

She---she couldn't bring someone back to life if their brain had been damaged!

This---this----_fucker_ had just---.

Chloe's head lowered, eyes watering, whole body shaking, as sadness and fury unlike anything she'd ever felt in her whole body rose within her body, churning aggressively, like a millions drums beating in her ears.

Lois' blood saturated the air, adding to the fury as the beast within her recognized it as her pack, and snarled, viciously, wanting the blood of the one who'd done this.

Even _if_ said blood was acid.

Raising her narrowed, completely inhuman gaze, Chloe let out a sound that she'd never heard before.

It seemed to shock the Alien as well, because the large serpent took a cautious step away from Lois' body.

For the first time ever, Chloe didn't try to control her mutation, control the bloodlust and the animalistic fury. She just let it take over, take control, and she was moving and doing things without even really fully understanding her actions.

There were shrieks of inhuman agony, blood spurting all over her, and yet unlike before, it didn't burn her skin. Her body had already gotten a taste of the acid blood before, and by the time that she'd found this one it'd found its own immunity against it.

And yet even if she'd begun to melt away with the acid Chloe doubted she would have been able to stop.

She didn't even really know what she was doing.

All she knew was that she was glowing like a Roman Candle in the darkness, breathing heavily, covered in blood, a creature that should be attacking her squirming frantically under her before a loud _crack_ could be heard, and it went still beneath her.

The next thing Chloe knew, she was fully conscious and in control of herself again, breathing heavily, kneeling over the dead serpent, cut, bleeding, but victorious.

Getting up, shaking, shocked and confused, Chloe wiped at the blood on her face, and then noticed that the acid had eaten away at most of her outer shirt and snow pants, working its way to her inner clothes.

Giving a little cry, Chloe tore them off, standing in the middle of the corridor in her long johns and undershirt, before suddenly remembering the _reason_ why shed snapped, and turned to where Lois was bleeding out on the floor.

Tears began to fill her eyes as the blonde went to her cousin's body and collapsed on her knees in her blood. Chloe threw herself over Lois, drawing the brunette into her lap, and crying desperately as she cradled the back of her head, not even reacting to the huge gaping hole there from the Alien's barbed tail.

Brain matter and blood, both red and green acid, decorated the walls around her, but Chloe couldn't care, couldn't care that she was vulnerable for an attack.

Lois was dead.

She---she'd let her cousin down.

Hugging Lois' body closer to hers, tighter, unable to accept this, Chloe cried unlike she had in a long time.

She hadn't cried when Jack had left her, she hadn't cried when Clark had gone to his planet, she hadn't even cried when Jack had disappeared or she'd discovered Lex's cancer and the fact that it was fatal.

But here, holding onto her only family, Chloe cried bitter, desperate tears.

She didn't know how long she stayed there, holding Lois and crying over her, the poison on her face mixing with her blood and tears, falling down into Lois' face, and she didn't care.

She didn't care if she died.

Didn't care if she was _eaten_.

And she didn't care if she died there of old age.

"I'm so sorry." Chloe cried those words over and over again. "So sorry----so sorry!"

There was a noise in the corridor.

She ignored it. "I should have protected you! I—it's all my fault! If I hadn't left you behind none of this would have happened!"

The floodgates seemed to have been opened as Chloe sobbed heartbrokenly.

Eyes closed so tightly, she didn't notice that she was glowing brighter than she ever heard, or that her tears, mixed with her blood and the venom, had mixed and were seeping into Lois' pores, causing her cousin's body to glow intensely as well.

Suddenly everything blacked out.

* * *

Sebastian helped a staggering, wheezing Weyland to climb a huge stone staircase, terror on both of their faces.

"What _was_ that thing?" Sebastian asked, looking back in terror.

"You…tell me…" Weyland's voice was pained and breathless. "You're…the pyramid…expert." Now half way up the stairs, Weyland fell to his knees, gasping for breath desperately.

"Mr. Weyland?" Sebastian knelt down next to him, eyes wide. "Mr. Weyland!"

The older man clutched at his heart, gasping violently, before his whole body went slack and he collapsed to the ground.

Sebastian just knelt there, eyes wide in horror. "_Mister Weyland_?"

Hearing hurried scuffling down the stairs towards him, Sebastian tore his eyes away from Weyland, terrified, his gaze landing on…

"_Miller_?"

"I heard your voice." Miller announced, stopping by them, eyes wide as they rested on the dead body. "Mister Weyland?"

"His heart." Sebastian answered, standing up on shaky legs and looking down at Charles Bishop Weyland.

A roar came from the chamber Sebastian and Weyland had just escaped from.

Sebastian turned to Miller, eyes wide. "We need to get out of here, immediately!"

"What the bloody hell is going on here, De Rosa?" Miller wanted to know as they ran back up the stairs. "Connors and Verheiden both got killed and I couldn't do anything! What's in this pyramid with us?"

"Gods and demons." Sebastian whispered.

"_What_?" Miller choked.

They raced into a vast chamber filled with rough hewn stone pillars and statues. The chamber was inky dark, but the pillars made it hard to see too far away…anything could be hiding in here.

"We have to keep moving and stay on this heading. Before---Jerry said we needed to stay in this direction and keep together if we want to make it to the surface." Sebastian announced.

The digital alarm started to go off again on Sebastian's watch.

"What's that?" Miller asked at the sound.

"The pyramid---it's moving!" Sebastian explained as the pyramid began to shift, reconfiguring once more.

"You have it _timed_?" Miller was shocked, and impressed.

Sebastian nodded, looking around him frantically. "Through there!" A heavy stone slab rose from the floor, slowly closing off the doorway ahead of them. "Hurry!"

Sebastian helped Miller through the doorway, but by the time Miller is safe, Sebastian has to _jump up_ and haul himself onto the slab, just barely scrambling across the top of the stone slab seconds before it sealed completely.

* * *

The last thing Lois remembered was seeing Chloe, then a sharp pain in the back of her head, and then darkness. So as she awoke with a sharp gasp of air, looking around the darkness, she was disoriented and afraid.

She looked around the dark corridor, surprised that it wasn't as dark as she remembered it. The brunette frowned.

Chloe.

Where was Chloe?

She looked behind her, eyes widening in horror when she saw her cousin lying lifelessly behind her.

"_Chloe_?" Lois whimpered, turning and crawling towards her cousin, leaning over her body and searching for a pulse, letting out a breath of relief when she found a strong one, and saw Chloe's chest rise and fall with her even breathing.

She'd just somehow gotten knocked out.

Probably by whatever had knocked Lois out.

Lois frowned.

Why was Chloe only in her Long Johns and undershirt?

And then Lois' gaze finally noticed the body of the large, fully adult Alien dead behind Chloe, and her half melted clothes, eyes widening.

"Whoa."

There was a noise, and Lois turned towards its, eyes narrowing, crouching on her hands and toes, sniffing, eyes tingling…

And that was when Lois realized it.

Something---something was _different_.

Pausing, confused, she almost didn't notice the blur coming towards her, but the shift of movement pulled her out of her trance, and she looked up, eyes widening in horror as the large humanoid creature Chloe had told her about appeared out of seemingly thin air.

While Lois was _always_ deeply protective of her baby cousin, she felt even _more_ protective than usual, aggression lacing the feeling and causing her to growl when the Predator advanced towards them

Suddenly the pyramid began to move all around them, and before the Predator could reach them, a wall came up between them.

Lois sighed, collapsing on her rear, looking around the small cell she and Chloe found themselves in.

She turned to look at her cousin and went to her, shaking her softly. "Chloe? Chloe! You have to wake up."

There was a groan, Chloe's eyes fluttering open, golden and feline. "Lois?" Her voice was groggy.

Lois smiled down at her. "Hey."

Chloe's eyes then widened. "_Lois_!" She shot up and hugged Lois tightly to her, crying. "How---how? You were _dead_!"

"Huh?" Lois patted her cousin's back confused. "Well, you brought me back, obviously. You've done it before."

"Lois---your _brain_ was all over the wall!" Chloe hiccupped, holding on tighter. "How---?"

"Ewww." Lois made a face at the description before pulling back and looking into her cousin's face. "Chloe---you can't---not without an intact brain."

"I know." Chloe whispered.

"Then how---?" Lois asked.

"I don't know." Chloe sniffled.

And then the blonde's golden eyes widened even further despite being completely feline. "Lois…"

"Yes?" Lois asked, wondering what _else_ could have her cousin looking so shocked.

"Why are your eyes red?"

* * *

In the shadows, Scar stared at the solid stone slab blocking his way to the females. In one sense he was glad, because he needed time to process what he'd just witnessed, and yet in another he wasn't, because he really needed that Plasma Gun.

Sensing something, the Predator turned in time to see a Face Hugger leaping towards him. He unleashed a throwing disc at the smaller creature in mid-air, slicing it in half.

He sensed something behind him in a crevice in the wall.

Reacting on instinct, Scar caught the returning throwing disc, spun around, and lopped the giant serpent's head clean off.

"Wow…that was some…Samurai move." He could hear the other female's voice. Obviously there were hidden peepholes in the wall for them to see him.

They'd witnessed his hunt and were impressed.

As they should.

Then again, Scar didn't exactly have the ability to bring one of his fallen _back to life_…so he _too_ was somewhat impressed and in awe of this new, previously unknown species he was encountering on his hunt.

As he stood over the dead Face Hugger, Scar wondered if the elders knew what the blonde female was.

Using a ceremonial knife, he cut off one of the creature's fingers, before removing his own armor visor, revealing his face.

"Whoa." Came an astonished voice from the other side. "You don't see a face like that every day."

"Lois, trust you to pick up on the most mundane of details in this whole situation." The blonde female sighed.

Using the severed finger like a crayon, Scar traced the Predator warrior insignia on the forehead of his armored visor, the acid blood leaking from the finger, etching the insignia into the metal.

"What…is he doing?"

"He---he's _blooding_ himself." The blonde sounded surprised.

Scar prepared himself and took in a deep breath before marking the same insignia on his own forehead. The serpent blood _seared_ into his flesh, causing him to cry out in a mixture of pain, but also of pride.

He was finally a _man_.

"He just---himself! _Why_?"

"Ancient tribal warriors would mark themselves with the blood of their kill. It's a rite of passage. A sign that they've become a man."

There was a gasp. "That's a _teenager_?"

Scar, still wincing with pain as he reapplied his face visor, wondered what a teenager was.

* * *

Miller picked himself up off from the floor, looking around the walls and the ceilings of the chamber they were trapped in for the time being. It was completely covered in hieroglyphics.

They'd made it to an ancient library of some kind, and while it made no sense whatsoever to Miller, the drawings were awe-inspiring.

"This is starting to make sense." Sebastian announced as he went over the hieroglyphics intensely.

"What is?" Miller asked, going to his side and looking at the specific glyphs Sebastian was immersed in.

"I think this is a manhood ritual of some kind." Sebastian finally spoke, not looking away from the drawings. "The humanoid ones, they've been sent here to prove that they are worthy to become adults."

Miller, who had yet to see these 'perfect predators', as Sebastian had called them, just frowned.

"Who knows how long these creatures live." Sebastian continued. "Perhaps for thousands of years. However old they are, this is their rite of passage." He traced a hand over the hieroglyphics. "That's why they didn't carry those guns with them to begin with. They had to _earn_ them. Like a knight earning his spurs." He paused. "The glyphs are a little difficult to make out but the story's all here."

Millers gaze followed Sebastian's hand as it traced each glyph and spoke of the story it represented.

"Thousands of years ago these hunters found a backwater planet." Sebastian began, eyes narrowed, concentrating. "They taught humans how to build and were worshipped as Gods."

Miller made a face.

"Everyone hundred years the Gods would return…and when they did, they would require a sacrifice in their shrine."

"Or the pyramid." Miller interrupted.

Sebastian nodded. "Humans were used to breed the ultimate prey, and the Hunters would battle these Great Serpents…to prove themselves worthy to return home to the stars."

Miller took in a deep breath and hugged himself, despite not feeling very cold at the moment.

"But if the Hunters lost…they made sure that nothing survived. Total genocide…an entire civilization wiped out over night." He looked up at Miller from the hieroglyphs.

"So the humanoids, the hunters," Miller finally spoke. "They brought those creatures here to _hunt_?"

Sebastian nodded, running his hand over his head. "And they use us like cattle. We're hosts for them to _breed_ in."

"So we didn't discover them." Miller frowned.

"No." Sebastian agreed, face ominous. "That heat bloom was designed to lure us down here. This whole thing was a trap." His gaze went back up to the glyphs. "Without us, there could be no hunt."

* * *

**Thus endeth this chapter.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/AVP**

Wanna thank **adiba123, papersoul, Veronica, violent-smurf, ayana45** and **SriHellgirl25** for reviewing the previous chapter :D

* * *

"Okay, so we're in a conundrum." Chloe announced turning her back to the peepholes and facing her cousin, who'd gone to sit in the middle of their little cell. "One, we're in the middle of some sort of alien hunt and we've taken the weapons from the hunters and made them just as hunted as we are."

"Hey, let's not forget that _they_ are the reasons we're down here." Lois frowned, looking up at her with determination. "I had to watch those innocent people die as _things_ burst out of their chests. These _Predators_ aren't the victims here."

"_No_, but they already have enough serpents---more than they can handle without the weapons they need to kill. Lois, this is a hunt, and we're not the main targets. We just got in the way and took their guns. We have to help them kill as many of those things or they might make it to the surface and kill everything and everyone up there." Chloe picked up her backpack and showed the weapon inside to Lois. "To make sure that doesn't happen, we need to give the gun back to that thing out there."

"It will _kill_ us." Lois stood fluidly, with more grace than she had ever managed before, eyes flashing. "It _would_ have killed us if that wall hadn't come up between us."

"Not true." Chloe responded, putting back on the backpack. "He's been trailing me for a while, maybe before I even noticed the blur behind me, and he hasn't attacked. He's been watching me, curious, and he wants the gun, that's for sure."

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Lois sighed, leaning against the wall. "So, now that we've decided on mass _suicide, _what was the second conundrum?"

"You really have to ask?" Chloe pointed towards Lois' ruby red eyes.

"Oh, _right_." Lois brought a hand to her face, sighing with distress. "How do I look? Is red my color?"

Chloe bit back a grin. "You're impossible."

"_What_?" Lois pouted. "You look freakily _good_ with the golden cat eyes. I just think that until I can get a mirror to look into and examine every single aspect of this myself I should---are they catlike?"

"No…" Chloe went a little closer, eyes flashing purest gold as the whole room lit up like ice reflecting sunshine. "They're just _bigger_, your whole eye, and the pupil isn't black its _dark_ red, while around it is a ruby hue."

"Does it clash with my hair?"

Chloe chuckled, pulling back. "No. Just makes your hair look darker."

"Oh, ok." Lois played with her hair a little. "I can live with that."

Chloe shook her head at her. "Aren't you even a _little_ worried about this? I mean, we don't know how it happened or _what_ exactly happened…or what the consequences of it might be."

"I know _exactly_ what happened." Lois looked up. "I died, you brought me back to life, and I came back _enhanced_."

"This isn't time for jokes---."

"I'm not joking." Lois narrowed her eyes, hands on her hips. "Chloe, I don't know what happened step by step, but the moment I opened my eyes I knew something was different in me, and from the first time I saw you it was like this connection was made and strengthened. It was like---it was like what they say happens with the first living thing the baby birds see. Like in that movie with that Paquin girl where the little girl was the first thing the baby geese saw and they thought she was their mother."

"Filial Imprinting?" Chloe asked, eyes narrowed.

"Yeah, _that_." Lois waved off the scientific term as unimportant. "Don't you feel it? I mean, you and I have always been close, but don't you _feel_ it?"

Chloe paused, trying to get what Lois was saying. "Feel _what_ exactly?"

"The _bond_." Lois announced. "Chloe—what if this is what Lex was talking about when he said that due to your not being human, you wouldn't be able to have a child with another human being…or at least not _like_ a normal human being?"

Chloe's eyes widened, finally understanding completely what Lois was trying to tell her. "You're saying you're my daughter."

"Precisely." Lois announced brightly. "_Thus_ the modifications to my body." She pointed to her eyes. "You must have _really_ wanted me to be alive,"

"Of _course_ I did!" Chloe gasped.

"Because since your healing powers couldn't work without my brain intact, then your _other mutation_ finally decided to become useful and brought me back like a different being." Lois announced, completely sure of her hypothesis. "So 'Mama', here I am. Your species is slowly growing."

Chloe blinked, shocked.

Lois grinned.

In the distance a sound like rolling thunder could be heard.

"The pyramid's shifting again." Chloe whispered, turning towards the wall that separated them from the Predator.

Lois sighed, going to stand next to Chloe and hold her ground. "Time to meet our 'friend'."

* * *

The alarm on Sebastian's watch went off and almost immediately they could hear the sound of stone sliding on stone as the pyramid began to reconfigure once again.

A new door opened.

Miller and Sebastian took in deep breathes before nodding to each other and walking into the dark tunnel, nervous, scared, knowing that either Predator or Alien could be hiding in the darkness and yet they'd never know until it was too late.

They made it out of the long corridor without any encounters and paused at a junction where three tunnels lay open and inviting all around them.

Sensing movement, Sebastian turned to the left tunnel, seeing a serpent-like figure moving in the darkness towards him, his eyes widening in horror. "Uh, Miller?"

"There!" Miller, unaware of what his companion had seen, eyes on the right tunnel, where off in the distance, the faint glow of the small strobe lights Jerry had dropped earlier, marking their path to the surface, could be seen dimly.

This was not the way they'd come in, but it was another way out.

"_Miller_!" Sebastian, who hadn't taken his terrified eyes off of the oncoming serpent, tugged on the man's shirt.

"_What_?" Miller turned, following Sebastian's gaze, eyes widening. "_Jesus, Mary and Joseph…"_ He grabbed Sebastian's arm. "What are you waiting on? _This_ way!"

The two men turned and headed down the right tunnel, towards the faint light ahead and the hope it offered them. They could hear the Great Serpent (as the hieroglyphics on the walls had called them) hurrying after them, but adrenaline and fear was on their side, giving them added speed.

A deep chasm ahead, spanning the corridor, appeared in their way to freedom. It was over fifteen feet wide, and though any sane man would have stopped running, the two shared looks and nodded, pushing themselves on faster, harder, preferring to miss the other side and fall to their deaths than any option staying behind with this _creature_ gave them.

The men grunted as they pushed off from the edge, attempting the impossible jump side by side, their bodies flying over the grand abyss, Sebastian's slightly taller body a little ahead of Miller's, causing him to land first on the other side violently. The edge of the ledge he landed on began to give way from the weight of the impact.

Miller landed a second later, but because of the weakened ledge, the edge he landed on gave way. He almost made it on. Almost. Miller hit the wall on the far side of the chasm, the impact smashing his ribs yet thankfully only bruising them and not breaking him.

He grimaced in pain and managed to hold onto the ledge above him. "A little _help_ De Rosa!"

"Hang on!" Sebastian reached down and grabbed Miller with his right hand, stopping him from falling. Grunting as he shouldered the other man's weight with one hand, Sebastian reached for him with the other, and slowly began to pull him up.

Miller's chest and stomach was scratched by the jagged ledge as he was pulled up to safety, and he chose not to complain as he finally landed on solid rock, even deigning to kiss the ground in thanks.

Sebastian, panting from the exertion of having to pull Miller, lay on the ground, chuckling slightly at the other man's actions. "You're welcome."

"Thanks." Miller turned to look back at the other side of the chasm, trembling slightly to see the large creature hissing at them before turning and running back into the darkness of the tunnel it'd come from. "We need to get out of here."

"Well said." Sebastian agreed, forcing himself to his feet and helping Miller up as well, before turning to see the strobe lights at the edge of this tunnel, leading the way to the surface. "Shall we follow the breadcrumbs, Gretel?"

"_Oy." _Miller made a face as they took off in the direction of the small lights. "If anyone here's _Gretel _it's _you_ mate. I got _two boys_ with my surname to prove my _manliness._"

Sebastian managed a laugh as they exited the corridor and stood by the strobes, before sharing a grin and following them as fast as their legs could take them towards the entrance chamber.

They stopped with an abrupt halt once they reached there, eyes wide in horror as they discovered Quinn's body frozen solid at the foot of the ice tunnel.

Sebastian gulped, looking up the impossibly long tunnel. "Makes you wonder exactly what happened up there."

"Can't be any worse than what's happened down here." Miller announced, going to the automatic winch and pulley system, which had one of the large equipment cases still fastened to it.

The thin man ripped the top of the case off and flung it away, the empty case converting into a _sled_. "Come on. Lets get outta here." He got in and grabbed the control box for the automated winch, waiting for Sebastian to hurry inside the box before pressing the _up_ button.

The case gave a _jerk_ and then they were going up at a moderate speed towards the surface.

"What if there are some of those things up there?" Sebastian asked, knees hugged to his chest as they sat in the case.

Miller snorted. "Then the joke would really be on us, wouldn't it?"

They traveled in silent trepidation, the trip seeming to take _hours_, before reaching the mouth of the hole and stepping out in shaky nervous feet…to find nothing but silence and snow all around them, the storm having died down, leaving a thin fog.

The recent snow around them showed no footprints of any kind.

Sebastian hurried towards one of the Haaglunds parked quite a distance away.

Miller stayed and pressed the _down_ button on the control box, placing the control in the case and watching it start its slow pace back down.

Sebastian, hearing the sound, turned back and frowned. "Why are you sending it back? Those things---."

"Have you see the claws on the Serpents? They don't _need_ it to come to the surface." Miller turned to him. "Neither do the Hunters, they're too advanced for that. But if anyone else is alive down there, they'll need it if they want to make it out alive."

Sebastian backed down at this reasoning, nodding, shouldering the backpack with the Hunter's weapon that he'd taken to ease Weyland's burdens. "Come on, let's get into one these things and get the hell out of here."

Miller gave the mouth of the hole one last look before turning and following the archeologist.

* * *

Chloe took in a deep, calming breath as the wall between the Predator and them slid away, and another corridor opened to their right as well, but she didn't pay it any mind, eyes narrowed and on the visor of the Predator's face armor, which had been put back on sometime during his stay, and now wore the mark of a Hunter proudly.

The Predator held a short metal tube in one hand.

A short metal tube she recognized.

Suddenly both ends of the tube telescoped out to the ridiculously large Predator Spear, very similar to her smaller, altered one.

He probably knew how to handle his a lot better than she did hers.

Even so, Chloe pulled out her own tube and it extended as well, metal sliding against metal.

"Are we sure about this?" Lois asked one more time, refusing to take her gaze off of the large humanoid in front of them.

Chloe nodded.

Mumbling softly to herself, Lois slowly raised her hands to show she wasn't going to do anything rash, and slowly went behind Chloe, opening her backpack and pulling out the gun. "The enemy of my enemy _better_ be my friend." Holding it in her hands for him to see it, Lois walked around Chloe, lowered to her knees and slid the gun across the floor to the silent Predator.

The Hunter picked up the gun as movement flashed in the darkness behind him.

Sensing the movement, the Predator (who hadn't had enough time to mount his gun) turned to see a fully adult Alien curling out from the darkness, mouth salivating, just about to strike.

He tried bringing up his spear to defend himself although they all knew he'd be too late as the Alien opened its mouth to snap off the Predator's head---there was a flash of silver and a screech of inhuman agony as the Alien collapsed on its back, Chloe's spear sticking out of its mouth through the back of its skull, pinning it to the ground.

Lois blinked and grinned, turning to Chloe. "Good shot."

The Predator looked down at the dead Alien as he finished mounting his gun on his shoulder, before turning to look at Chloe.

The blonde smirked at him. "You _so_ owe me."

He snorted at her.

Chloe walked passed the Predator and marched onto the Alien's body, stepping on its head and throat, the spear between. Careful not to step on any of the acid blood, she took in a deep breath and _yanked_ the spear clear through to freedom, watching as the corroding metal once more began to glow and return to its sharp tip, looking even sharper, and this time even _barbed_.

She turned to the Predator and jumped off of the body. "This is a _really_ cool weapon. Kudos to your civilization."

The Predator seemed to be looking at the spear in awe.

She wondered why.

The Predator then raised his gaze to her face and kept it there.

Chloe met that shielded gaze, refusing to back down, though the intensity in his stare was kinda unnerving.

"Um, guys?" Lois' voice interrupted. "Not to break up this little _moment_ you two got going on or anything, I mean, who am _I_ to talk against Xenophilia or whatever…but how about we wait until _after_ that flood of Aliens crawling towards us is destroyed before we share the love?"

Chloe and the Predator turned their gazes in the direction of the side tunnel Lois was pointing in, the blonde admittedly slightly mesmerized by the Aliens. They seemed to flow over the ceiling, the walls, the floor, like a continuous flow of water, or maybe even a brigade of ants.

Snarling, the Predator shot at an Alien, vaporizing it. He continued on, shooting, vaporizing one after the other after the other easily now that he had his true weapon in his hands, or, er, _shoulder_.

Chloe and Lois shared grins.

Realizing that their numbers were rapidly diminishing, the Aliens scattered, retreating for now, leaving the tunnel completely empty and freeing the way for passage if the humans and Predator so desired to go down that way.

Suddenly a loud piercing _shriek_ echoed throughout the Pyramid, as if from _below_, stronger than anything Chloe had heard.

"What was that?" Lois asked softly, a little tremor in her voice.

Chloe couldn't blame her.

The sound terrified _her_ as well.

She turned to the Predator as it turned towards her. "Look, we need to team up."

He snorted.

She narrowed her eyes at it. "You have no more reason to hunt, you already blooded yourself, you're already wearing pieces of your previous kills as trophies---you have enough to prove that you've come up against a Serpent and won. So, congratulations, you're a man."

"_Adult_." Lois corrected.

"Thanks." Chloe smiled at her cousin before narrowing her eyes at the Predator, defiant despite her terrifying knowledge that they wouldn't be able to make it out there without him, not with those endless waves of aliens, and that he could easily kill her and her cousin if he wanted to. "Now, listen here. We're all on the same team. We all want to get to the surface."

He gave her a look as if asking her why he should help them get up to the surface when he could make it there easily himself.

"I saved your life back there, _bub_!" Chloe poked his armored chest with her finger, hurting her finger, and yet refusing to show this, continuing to poke him. "You owe me! And as a warrior I know you believe in things like _honor_, so you're not going to turn your back on someone who _saved your life_, and you're going to honor this and take me and Lois to the surface with you!"

He grabbed her finger, pressing it hard.

Her bone snapped loudly, breaking.

Chloe screamed, jerking her finger from his grip. She held her broken finger to her chest, feeling the warmth and seeing the glow as it began to heal almost immediately.

"Chloe!" Lois cried out.

"Stay back!" Chloe ordered. "He's testing us!"

Lois stayed where she was, though her whole body shook with the desire to go see how her cousin was.

As soon as her finger was completely healed, Chloe grit her teeth and slammed her boot-covered foot into the Predator's shin, yelping when the armor only made her hurt herself more. "_Goddammit_!"

The Predator let out a noise that was irritatingly similar to a _chuckle_.

Reaching out, it grabbed her hand and jerked her forwards from where she'd been jumping on one foot, the other throbbing in pain from where she'd kicked him, raising her easily into the air as if she weighed nothing.

Chloe's arm felt like it was being ripped from its socket as her feet dangled off the ground, and she grunted, using her other hand to gain purchase on the chest armor, relieving some of the pressure from her arm.

The Hunter ignored the rest of her, holding her up with one hand, and examining her now perfect finger with the other. He was completely enthralled, playing with the finger, moving it back and forwards, unable to believe it was completely healed.

"If you even _think_ of breaking another I will make this whole ordeal you had to go through _pointless_." She threatened with a hiss, pressing her leg against his (unprotected by the armor) crotch.

Again the Predator let out that sound, but it sounded a lot more like laughter as it jerked her up and down by her arm like a ragdoll before finally dropping her.

Chloe dropped to her knees before standing and glaring at him.

He was clearly amused with her.

Lois sighed, shaking her head. "I see it's normal for teenage males of _any_ species to mess with the female it likes."

Chloe glared at _Lois_.

The Predator continued looking at Chloe before looking down at its wrist computer and motioning with his head to a tunnel behind her before beginning to walk away.

Lois and Chloe exchanged looks before Chloe picked up her spear from where it'd dropped when the Predator had broken her finger, and the two hurried after him. Since the warrior had his spear and plasma gun, and Chloe had her spear, Lois was in the middle of them, the safest she could be while weaponless.

"They're close." Lois whispered, as if almost able to sense the Aliens.

The Predator turned and looked back at them, nodding, before returning his attention back in front of him and beginning to run, the two females following in his footsteps, trying to keep up with him.

As they followed the Predator to the surface, which should be close if Chloe's calculations were right, the blonde suddenly slowed and halted, noticing something on the ground.

It was Miller's camera.

Kneeling to pick it up, the blonde held it in her hands, slowly wiping the slimy substance off of it.

"Miller?" She stood, looking around her. "Miller!"

No answer.

Narrowing her eyes, piercing the darkness, Chloe noticed an entrance to the side and entered, eyes widening at the sight that welcomed her.

It was the Sacrificial Chamber, and yet it was completely different, bodies cocoons all over the room, aliens eggs everywhere. Her friends were all there, dead, what was left of their rib cages already bent outward, the Chest Bursters long gone.

Connors and Verheiden's faces, the bodies closest to her, were all frozen in grotesque rictus.

Even though she hadn't known them well, Chloe lowered her head and gave them the moment's silence they deserved.

There was movement at the entrance of the room, and she turned to see that the Predator and Lois had returned for her, Lois looking pained and yet not surprised at what she saw, the Predator entering the Sacrificial Chamber as well and looking around at the countless eggs in the chamber, coming alive at the presence of fresh hosts.

That same shriek, powerful and terrifying, shook and echoed throughout every chamber and corridor in the Pyramid.

The Predator froze at the sound.

Chloe turned to him. "What _is_ that?" And that was when she realized it---he was _scared_.

That was no normal alien making that sound.

If there was something in here that _scared_ this warrior, it terrified Chloe.

"We have to get out of here." The blonde said, passing Lois the camera to put in the pocket of her parka.

"Wait." Lois spoke up. "We—we can't let these things get out of here."

The Predator pressed several buttons on his wrist computer, causing several loud beeps, and suddenly a cluster of unrecognizable symbols appeared on the wrist computer.

He showed it to Chloe.

The blonde looked up from the computer to him in confusion. "I don't understand."

He pointed to the wrist computer before making a tight fist with the hand that the wrist computer was on. Then he used the opposite hand to point to the wrist computer. His gaze rose to Chloe's as he slowly unfurled his fist.

"An explosion?" Chloe tried to understand, and then her eyes widened. "It's a _bomb_."

The Predator looked at her and unfurled his hand again.

She grinned and nodded, understanding his plan completely.

The warrior looked at his wrist computer and activated the countdown, removing the wrist computer, now a bomb, from his wrist, holding it in his hand.

Lois sneered at the eggs, which were beginning to open. "I hope it kills every fucking one of them."

The hunter threw the bomb deep into the chamber before turning and leading the females out, leaving the wrist computer behind as it began to count down.

Chloe and Lois followed rapidly behind the predator as they raced through the darkened maze, the pace brutal. The females were doing their best to keep up, especially Lois, who still didn't have much control over herself, her body worn from its rebirth.

The Predator stopped at an intersection, seeming uncertain for a moment, before heading to the right.

Lois, in the middle, halted at the intersection. "No! It's _this_ way!" She hurried left, taking the lead, stepping over one of the strobe lights Jerry had left earlier, indicating the path back to the surface.

Chloe hurried behind her, and after a moment, the predator did so as well.

They ran together, following the strobe lights out of the entrance of the pyramid, Lois and Chloe exchanging grins when they broke through of the pyramid just as it began to reconfigure again.

The three companions hurried down the steps of the pyramid, Chloe looking back, heading towards where the ice tunnel would take them back to the surface.

There were no signs of the Aliens behind them.

For now they were safe.

She turned back around and barely managed to keep from running into Quinn's frozen body, a shriek of surprise escaping her lips.

Shaking off her surprise, Chloe turned to where Lois was already at the automated winch and pulley system, where a large equipment case was still fastened, its top having been pulled off and flung away.

It hadn't been that way when they'd come down.

Chloe looked up at the ice tunnel, chest filling with hope that someone else had survived this hellhole and was waiting for them above on the surface.

Lois entered the case and grabbed the control box for the automated winch, but it was covered in Alien slime.

Chloe frowned as she continued gaze up the tunnel. Far above something was moving…headed for the surface.

She turned to the Predator. "Get in!"

As the warrior turned, an Alien claw appeared out of _nowhere _and cut into his shoulder, smashing his plasma gun.

The Alien was hunched over the Predator's back, a blur of teeth and claws.

Lois saw a piton gun in the sled.

Diving for it she aimed it at the Alien's head as the Alien bit deep into the Predator's shoulder, causing the warrior to roar in agony. "Hey ugly!"

The Alien looked up at her.

"Bite _this_!" She pulled the trigger, blowing the Alien's head off, the force of the blow sending it flying off of the wounded Predator.

A second Alien appeared and rushed the sled, smashing the piton gun.

The Predator reached for his throwing disc and drove it down into the Alien's crown, wounding it badly. Acid blood poured from the Alien's wounds, splashing the warrior and burning through his armor.

His wounds were brutal, but not deadly.

Locked in deadly combat, the Alien clawed at the Predator, blow after pounding blow.

The scent of blood permeated the air.

The Alien licked the air, looking up, completely disoriented by the scent.

"Hey." Hand bleeding from where she'd sliced it with the blade of her spear, Chloe held said spear like one would a baseball bat, and _whacked_ the Alien in its face, the blow sending it flying off of the injured Predator and into a wall of solid ice.

Chloe bent down and tugged the warrior to his feet. "That's _two more_ you owe us." Flinging his arm over her shoulder, Chloe managed to somehow help the Predator to the sled and the both tumbled back into it together as Lois pressed the _Up_ button.

They began to rise at a slow but steady pace, Chloe leaning over the injured, bleeding Predator, rubbing her hands together, seeing them glow as they began to heat up with her healing power. She took in a deep breath and pressed her hands against his chest, his armor having corroded greatly, concentrating.

Before their eyes his tissue regenerated and stitched back together seamlessly, all blood stopping.

It was over sooner than she would have expected, and Chloe sat back on her heels, sighing, a little tired from having been running for so long, giving _birth_, and healing and _self-healing_ all day long.

The Predator sat up, slowly touching his chest and neck for the wounds that weren't there anymore, before tilting his head and looking at Chloe strangely.

He made another one of his odd noises.

"Think he wants a kiss?" Lois joked. "This could be that Nightingale Syndrome I've heard so much about."

Chloe elbowed her in the ribs.

Despite being winded and a little in pain, Lois began to laugh.

2,000 feet above, the digital readout on the automated winch suddenly changed to---_EMERGENCY RELEASE ACTIVATED_. The digital counter read 3…2…1… And then the counterweight was released.

Even with the weight of the two females and the Predator, the sled was still much lighter than when loaded with equipment. The result was that instead of a slow, steady rise to the surface, the sled took off like an Express Elevator out of _Hell_, _literally_ snatching the threesome out of the clutches of the aliens climbing the tunnel they had had yet to realize were closing in on them.

The speed with which they ascended was incredible, knocking the breath out of them, leaving them unable to even _speak_.

Finally the sled leapt from the tunnel, smashing into the winch rig with a massive impact, throwing the threesome clear out of it and sending them airborne.

Everyone landed _hard_ in the snow, although Chloe's landing was kinda softened by landing on the armorless _Predator_, and she was glad that the impact had knocked Lois unconscious otherwise the brunette would have made some wiseass comment that Chloe would have had to seriously hurt her for.

On the surface, the katabatic storm Quinn had told Stafford about had blown itself out to be replaced by a heavy sea mist, which reduced visibility to no more than a hundred and fifty feet.

The dark building of the whaling station loomed menacingly out of the gloom.

Pushing off of the disoriented Predator with not even a by your leave, Chloe went towards a groaning, waking Lois and helped the groggy brunette to her feet. Chloe looked up, seeing the Predator on his feet as well, motioning for them to hurry, making the bomb movements with his hand once more.

Chloe, eyes widening as she remembered the impending explosion, began running, urging Lois on, following behind the Predator.

Behind them, an Alien appeared at the mouth of the tunnel, the first to reach the surface. It howled in victory, for blood, and was about to leap forwards and give chase to the fleeing three when suddenly the snow around the Alien's feet began to vibrate as the force of the underground explosion rippled violently throughout the earth.

The Alien turned back to look down the tunnel at the growing fireball reflecting off of its shiny opaque armor-skin. At the sound of the shrieks of its brothers still in the tunnel, the Alien only had a moment to try and turn away before the fireball hit it with full force, blowing it to pieces.

The massive fireball swept across the whaling station, setting buildings alight and throwing a rain of flaming debris into the night sky. The force of the explosion threw the three fleeing to their knees.

A giant shockwave shuddered through the snow…and then the ground began to give way.

The ice cave and the Pyramid beneath Razorback Point began to collapse, taking a huge chunk of the mountain range with it. The mountain peak directly above the pyramid was sucked down into the bowels of the Earth.

The collapse of Razorback Point began spreading outwards, like ripples in a pond. It started consuming the whaling station, building after building being sucked into the abyss.

The drilling rigs, the base camp---all were quickly swallowed from view.

As buildings collapsed all around them, the Predator forced Chloe and Lois from their knees and they began to run once more, the snow and ice at their feet starting to crack and give way. It seemed as if no matter how fast they ran, the cracks were already spreading ahead of them.

The very ground beneath their feet began to give way.

Giving each other a determined look, the three made one last desperate jump as the earth literally disappeared from beneath them.

----------

Chloe must have blacked out for a moment, because the next thing she knew she was lying in the snow, looking up at the sky, Lois shaking her.

Groaning, Chloe sat up, rubbing at her head, noticing the Predator standing with his back to them, gaze intent on something. The blonde followed the direction of his gaze and her eyes widened when she realized that she'd been lying on the very edge of a _giant crater_.

At the very edge of the crater, huge chunks of ice stuck into the air like shattered teeth, and apart from a handful of burning buildings, the entire whaling station was gone.

All that remained were smashed timbers, the iced-over harbor and the Separator---the giant vat for boiling whale blubber that she and Sebastian had once discussed.

Struggling to her knees, Chloe narrowed her feline's eyes. Even now it was hard to see the full expanse of the crater through the mist, but she knew it was vast. Far below lay the wrecked timbers of the whaling station.

The snow around them hissed where chunks of Alien carcass had landed.

Lois kicked at a severed head with hellish glee.

Chloe smiled at the sight, turning to look at the Predator, who was leaning down and picking something up.

It was an Alien finger.

Turning towards the females, the Predator waited until he had Lois' curious attention before raising the Alien finger expectantly.

Chloe was still a little dazed, and it took her a moment to realize what it was that he was doing.

Lois, though, had figured it out before her, eyes widening. "Really?"

He nodded.

She looked at Chloe with a grin, taking everything in stride, before going towards the warrior and outstretching her arm, pulling up her sleeve.

"What?" She asked him at his look. "It might be all the rage in _your_ home planet, but face mutilation isn't exactly something we do down here."

The Hunter tilted its head, considering her, before shaking his head with an exasperated sigh. Holding up the Alien finger, acid blood dripping from its point, he burnt the distinctive Predator warrior scar into Lois' inner wrist, above her pulse.

The brunette tensed in pain, but made no sound, as the warrior began to 'blood' her.

When it was finished she jerked her hand back and began to blow at the burn frantically.

Chloe chuckled slightly in amusement at her cousin before turning when the warrior seemed to be waiting for her.

Her smile fell.

"Uh, thanks for the privilege, I know it means a lot, but, uh, it won't work on me."

"Why not?" Lois asked, waving her wrist around frantically to try and quench the burn, finally going to her knees and burying her wrist in the snow.

"I kinda became immune." Chloe admitted.

Lois glared angrily at Chloe as if th un-fairness of that situation were somehow all _her_ fault and not her mutation's continual evolution.

The Predator continued to wait in front of Chloe.

She sighed, standing and brushing off her Long Johns before presenting her wrist to the warrior, grinning as he sighed and shook his head as she _too_ decided that she preferred not to have a huge scar burnt into her forehead.

Passing _her_ the finger to hold in her free hand (a move that surprised her), the warrior reached into his pocket for his ceremonial knife, and before Chloe could react he'd _sliced_ the Predator warrior symbol into her skin and then dropped the dagger and grabbed the finger from her, tracing the venom over the sliced symbol.

Chloe doubled at the excruciating _pain_ as it entered her bloodstream and began to boil visibly.

The Predator kept a strong hold on her hand.

Somehow she managed to keep silent during it all, before it was finally over and she was able to breath normally, straightening shakily and looking at the burnt, distinctive scar on her wrist, tinted slightly in gold.

She looked up at the pleased, somewhat smug hunter. "You can let go now."

He was _smirking_ at her from behind his visor for getting his way…she just _knew_ it.

* * *

Scar smirked.

The UFO…_unidentified female organism_…was a spitfire, definitely a warrior, both her _and_ the brunette. They were both capable and entertaining, especially the blonde, who he could break a thousands times and yet she'd just heal right back up.

It was quite a sight.

Made him want to break something else just to see the appendage glow again as it healed…but he didn't doubt that despite her tiny size, she'd carry out her threat against certain unarmored bits he preferred to remain intact. So he kept his interest to himself.

"Aren't you cold?" The brunette female asked the blonde. "You're basically in Eskimo underwear."

"Yeah, I'm a bit cold." The blonde admitted, hugging herself slightly.

Scar was glad that his processor was finally able to compute everything they said…even _if_ he couldn't communicate back to them. The females seemed to understand him well enough without verbalization being needed though, so it wasn't so bad.

He looked up at the sky, wondering when his people would arrive.

Suddenly the ground beneath them began to tremble, and Scar narrowed his eyes, looking around them, when suddenly behind them the Serpent Queen, the one thing Predators truly feared and only dared to hunt in groups of at least _twenty_, burst from the ground, showering them with chunks of ice and snow.

"Who Super-Sized _that_ motha?" The brunette asked, taking a couple of hurried steps backwards.

"I think we now know where all the eggs were coming from." The blonde, Alpha female, took in a deep breath, reaching for the combo spear she had placed in the waistband of her white pants, the small tube telescoping out immediately to its strange, barbed-pointed design.

Scar had never seen a warrior spear do that before---then again, he hadn't seen a combo spear do _half_ of the things this one did in the Alpha female's hands.

The Queen gained purchase on the ice, towering over them menacingly.

None of her children had survived the explosion, and yet she lived, throwing her head back in a vicious roar, out for blood.

Scar reacted with lightning speed, cocking his wrist guard and firing two sharp blades into the Queen's neck. A second later, not giving her any time to recuperate, he flung the last of his throwing discs at her, the disc cutting through her throat, opening a gaping wound.

Catching the disc and throwing it again, Scar felt a jolt of satisfaction as it chopped off a chunk of her crown. He reached out to catch the disc once more, but at the last second the queen's tail whipped around, smashing into him and sending him flying into the remnant of a wooden building.

His whole body erupted into agony at the impact, and he fell to the ground. Despite this the proud warrior tried to rise, determined that if he was to die here he would do so standing, but a further blow from the Queen's tail drove him back to the ground.

She closed in on him to finish him off, her tail hovering above his prone body, ready for the killer blow.

There was a yell as the Alpha female charged the Queen, her voice causing the creature to turn her attention from Scar in time for the Alpha blonde to drive her spear deep into the Queen's neck---into the very wound that Scar had opened with his throwing disc.

The Queen screamed in pain as the blonde twisted the blade, opening the wound still further. The creature attempted to crush the blonde, but the Alpha sheltered beneath the Queen's own body, using her opponent's body against her.

The blonde pulled out the ceremonial knife Scar had forgotten after the blooding, and drove it up into the Queen's abdomen, holding onto the handle with both hands and pulling it upwards towards her with all of her might.

An agonized screech came from the creature as blood poured down on the blonde, burning away at her clothes and yet otherwise not doing any damage. The queen somehow managed to get one of her hands under her, flinging the blonde away from her viciously.

The Queen struggled furiously with the spear still embedded in her neck, concentrating on that one despite the fact that the knife was still deep inside her abdomen. Finally she pulled the spear loose, throwing it away from her, but in her frenzy she lost balance, crashing into a still burning building.

She rose from the flames, furious and ready for vengeance, still bleeding from her abdomen, the acid having eaten away at the knife and corroded it to nothing.

Scar tried to find where the blonde had disappeared to, her spear missing as well, but he could see the brunette. She was sheltering behind the giant skeleton of a whale, holding the spear Scar hadn't even realized he'd dropped.

Around her a striking landscape of bleached whalebones loomed from the thick mist, and Scar knew that from her position she would only be able to hear the Queen, but not see her, hearing the thumps and feeling the ground shake as the Queen moved, hunting.

The brunette's eyes strained in the gloom as the Queen's footsteps got closer to where she hid.

She was shaking.

Without warning the Queen lunged from the mist, looming right above the Beta female. The brunette ran, but the Queen was right behind her as they ran the length of the whale's skeleton, the bones curving around her like a giant cage. The Queen was seconds behind her, crashing the giant bones, sending them flying like toothpicks.

The Queen was right on to of the Beta female, jaws snapping, when the smaller female took a sudden turn to the left.

The creature was just too big, and going too fast, to be as agile as her prey. She attempted to turn, her teeth missing the female by inches, but in an instant she overbalanced and crashed across the ice in a spectacular explosion of snow and whalebones.

Within an instant, however, she was back on her feet, hungry for blood.

Scar forced himself to his feet, despite the pain in his body, and looked around for some sort of a weapon.

Suddenly a spear landed between his legs in the snow.

It was the Alpha's.

He looked up, following the trajectory, to see the blonde give him a look before bringing her fingers to her lips and letting out a piercing whistle.

The Queen stopped in her tracks, right about to bring her jaws down on the brunette, her giant legs having eaten up the distance between the brunette and herself within a matter of _seconds_.

Seeing the one who'd injured her, the creature roared and forgot about the prey she'd been pursuing so arduously and gave chase to the blonde, who dove under the only shelter she could find…

…The _Separator_.

It sat on the edge of the steep cliffs overlooking the harbor, a giant metal vat, a complex web of metal and wood supports held the Separator aloft.

The Queen impacted with the structure, almost ripping it from the ground and causing the Separator to drop three feet instantly, nearly crushing the one sheltering underneath it.

The Separator teetered on the edge of the harbor, threatening to topple any second into the pack ice far below. As if sensing this, the Alien Queen started smashing through the remaining supports using her claws and tail.

The Alpha blonde narrowly avoided the tail smashing in and out of the Separator. The Queen smashed another support beam, weakening the Separator still more.

Now hopelessly overbalanced, the Separator began to tip over, sliding further and further over the cliffs, and the further it slid, the more it exposed the prey to the huntress.

Scar pulled the spear from the ground and took off towards them, silent as the night, as the blonde was left defenseless and without shelter, the Queen rearing up, ready to strike.

Flying through the air in a giant, Predator leap, Scar drove the spear clean through the side of the Queen's head and landed in the snow besides the blonde with ease, ready for battle.

The Queen howled in pain, and for a moment, she was too distracted to fight any further.

The blonde examined the Queen, eyes narrowing at the realization that the many restraints that had held the Alien Queen prisoner in the central core of the Pyramid until her escape were still attached to her body. The Alpha dragged on of the long chains still attached to the creature and attempted to hook it onto the Separator, which was still teetering on the edge of the cliffs.

Scar smirked as her plan became clear.

The Separator would fall at any moment, dragging the Queen with it into the harbor.

The only problem was that those giant chain links were just to heave for the female to lift on her own.

Hurrying to her side, Scar helped her lift the chain and hook it onto the Separator.

For a glorious moment he and the female worked together, in synch.

Suddenly the Queen Alien screamed once more, and Scar turned to see that she'd been about to punch through his chest with her tail when _his_ spear had joined the blonde's in the gash in her neck, the brunette female hurrying past the creature and coming to their aid with the chains, sending him a glare.

"Keep an eye on your back next time!"

Scar sighed.

Just how many times had these females saved his life since they'd teamed up?

It was somewhat disgraceful.

Wasn't _he _supposed to be the big warrior trained for years to come against the Great Serpents and prove his worth to be accepted as an adult in his society?

The final remaining legs of the Separator finally gave way, and the Separator tumbled down the hill, the chains pulling tight and dragging the Alien Queen with it.

The Separator hit the pack ice covering the harbor, cracking the ice, but not breaking through completely. The Alien Queen was dragged to the edge of the cliffs but not into the freezing depths below, as planned.

Spiderweb cracks spread out through the pack ice, weakening, breaking up, but not fast enough.

The Alien Queen made one last lunge for the blonde, like a dog on a chain, obviously having a personal grudge against _her_. Her jaws came within an inch of the blonde, who was backed up against the torn remnants of a building, with nowhere to run.

The Queen strained at the end of her chain, her inner mouth shooting out, snapping right in front of the blonde's face, threatening to tear it clean off.

"Hey! Queen _Bitch_!" The brunette's voice caught the Alien's attention, causing her to look at the brunette, who'd picked up a board from one of the destroyed buildings and was holding it high. "No tongue on the first date!" And with that she swung the board into the Queen's face, the momentum driving the Alien backwards and _off of the cliff_.

"Thanks." The Alpha smiled at her Beta.

The Beta beamed, tossing the board behind her. "Think nothing of it."

As a unit, the three peered over the cliff in time to see the screeching Alien hit the Separator below, her large girth working against her once more as with the sudden impact the pack ice finally cracked and gave way.

The giant metal vat slipped through the ice and was sucked into the water below, dragging the Alien Queen down with it.

Scar stood there by the two females, looking down at the now empty ice, the Queen having disappeared in the darkness of the water.

He couldn't believe it.

It took his people a large hunting group of at east _twenty_ full-seasoned warrior to fell the beast he and two _females_ had done…without a _single _fatal injury.

Suddenly above them the sky lit up, and they shielded their faces with their hands, gazing upwards as his people's spacecraft finally undid their cloaking device.

And then, as one, those around them undid their cloaking devices as well.

They were surrounded by the Elders, who had obviously arrived armed to help take down the Queen…and were in shock and not sure what to do as they stared at the three who'd felled the beast own their own…and without even a _Plasma Gun_.

Scar turned to the Elders, as did the females.

The Head Elder stepped forwards, respect in his eyes as he stared at the three, and at their respective marks.

He motioned for Scar to come forwards, and he handed him a Warrior Spear, the _true_ spear of a Predator accepted into his society.

Scar received it with pride, bringing it to his forehead before turning to look at the Alpha and Beta females.

The Head Elder motioned for the females to come a little closer.

They shared a cautious look before doing so, the blonde hugging herself and trembling slightly, as her clothes seemed to have mostly melted off of her due to the Queen's blood covering her.

The Head Elder motioned for the brunette to come forwards and to extend her scarred wrist.

The Beta was a little hesitant and then did so defiantly, blinking when the Head Elder looked into her red eyes curiously before eyeing her mark with a nod and reaching out to another Elder, who passed him another Warrior Spear.

The Head Elder passed the Warrior Spear to the female, who accepted it with a grin and a quick bow to him, which he seemed to be surprised about, but quite pleased with nonetheless.

Scar smirked as the brunette skipped off to the side, playing with her new weapon, completely ignoring everyone else.

The Head Elder motioned the Alpha female forwards, and she followed, shivering violently, holding herself.

He motioned for her hand.

She placed her small hand in his, a little wary and yet deciding to trust when the Head Elder led her towards the opening of the spacecraft.

The brunette stopped playing with her Warrior Spear, frowning and looking up. "Cuz?"

The blonde tried answering, but her teeth were chattering too violently. She let the Head Elder lead her into the spacecraft.

The Beta frowned and made to follow.

Scar extended his hand out in front of her to stop her.

The female glared up at him but trusted him enough to stay put.

To be honest, Scar was curious as well as to why the Head Elder was taking the Alpha female into their spacecraft.

"What's he doing in there with her?" The female asked Scar with a frown circa ten minutes later. "I don't like this. If they don't come out soon I'm going Rambo on everyone's asses!"

Scar, not exactly sure what that _meant_, just gave her a look before returning his gaze to the door.

What exactly was happening inside?

* * *

**Next Chapter Should be The Last.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I don't own Smallville/AVP/The Cave.**

Wanna thank **enyalie1134, Veronica, vamp1987, papersoul, Ev, SriHellgirl25, Tilly Tah Tah, Shadow Girl, renaid, violent-smurf, adiba123 **and **Stardust0808** for reviewing the previous chapter.

* * *

Chloe hadn't really known what to expect when she'd been led into the Predator spacecraft, but a set of clothes hadn't really factored in her thoughts.

Not that she wasn't totally grateful though, since she was almost naked except for her boots, and the clothes were light and yet extremely warm. It was a one piece black bodysuit with two pieces of material connected around her hips resembling a skirt.

A _very_ skimpy skirt.

Interestingly enough, the suit had been huge on her before, but when she'd put it on it'd adapted to her body perfectly in a matter of minutes, warming her in seconds.

Stepping out of the changing room, shucking on some new boots (wondering where her old ones were), Chloe gave a little half bow to the Head Elder. "Thank you."

Nodding, the Elder motioned for her to follow him, which she did with some wariness, entering what looked like a Memorial Hall of some sort. Obviously great care was taken in the maintaining of the various weapons or armor or relics in this room. There were plaques with Predator writing on them, obviously stating something about each piece.

Not knowing Predator proved an irritation for the curious blonde, as she wondered what had happened or who had used said items for them to be placed in this position of reverence.

All around them holographic images began to appear.

Chloe stopped.

The images were of _her_.

She turned to look at the Elder with shock as images, which had obviously been recorded on a hidden camera located in Scar's visor, documented most of her activity after she and the Predator had first met, weapons trained at each other. She saw herself fighting, healing…

…her eyes widened as the moment her mind had blanked out---the moment she'd massacred the Alien that'd killed Lois---with her _bare hands---_ was there for her to see.

It was brutal and animalistic, her movements fluid and deadly, no humanity seemed left in her as she scratched and clawed and broke bones and _bit_ the Alien---who was trying desperately to get away. And then she'd broken its _neck_.

With her own hands.

Chloe felt sick at her stomach, suddenly understanding for the first time the fear Jack felt at his mutation taking over.

That creature on the screen wasn't _her_…and yet it _was_.

Chloe continued to watch as she recreated Lois, the old body _melting away_ with the venom that'd dripped off of Chloe, before reappearing in a blast of light similar to Chloe's healing light.

Standing together, the two watched the rest of the footage, up to the moment of the death of the Queen, before the Elder motioned to something to something behind the holographic images.

There, on a pedestal, were Chloe's boots.

She let out a little surprised laugh and walked towards the stand, where a blank plaque was waiting to be engraved. The blonde was shocked and honored as she suddenly understood what this room was.

It was for those few warriors who'd outshone the others during a hunt, a battle, a war…this was the Hall of Warriors.

It humbled her into near shock that her worn, battered _boots_ stood in the same room with the weapons and the armor.

Chloe turned to the Elder. "I don't know what to say."

He motioned to something off to the side.

The blonde followed his gaze and noticed a large boulder in the far back of the room. It looked liked it'd once been a part of a mountain, and yet had been cut off with some fancy laser beam and brought onto the ship.

Curious, she made her way towards it and noticed something shining slightly in a crevice. It reminded her eerily of the Kryptonian crystal inside of the cave in Romania. She turned to the Elder, wondering why he was showing it to her, and her eyes narrowed when he motioned for her to continue.

Continue what exactly?

Clearing her throat, Chloe turned back to the chunk of mountain and went closer to the hole, peering inside, wondering what was causing the slight glowing from inside.

Taking in a deep breath, she looked at the Elder again, and when he motioned her to continue once more, she turned back to the chunk of mountain and squared her shoulders, sticking her hand inside and trying to feel for it.

Hand all the way inside to the shoulder, Chloe leaned her head against it and felt around with her hand, confused, since it'd seemed to be so much closer. And yet she was stretching her arm and not coming into contact with anything but humid rock.

Then, all of a sudden, she felt her mutation shifting on, and she stilled, feeling movement in the crevice. She turned her feline eyes on the Elder and shifted her hand violently when something lunged at it. She then closed her hands tightly around the thing that'd attacked her and cried out in piercing pain, pulling her hand out from the crevice, eyes widening when they fell upon what she had in her hand.

It was a _caltrop._

And yet it was made of a material she'd never seen before…it was piecing right through the skin of her hand…her wounds bleeding gold…and the caltrop…the wicked, barbed caltrop was _melting_…entering into those wounds.

Horrified, Chloe reached to try and drag it out, not sure what it was doing, when with an explosion of bright gold light the barbed caltrop journeyed into her through the wounds that closed up immediately afterwards.

Her arm began to burn worse than when Scar had poured the Alien blood into her cuts.

Chloe grabbed her arm, biting down a scream as her veins bulged and turned bright gold. She fell to her knees and ducked her head, her whole arm trembling violently.

Images flashed through her mind in rapid concession of a tall, proud female alien warrior, battling different creatures, the weapon in her hand shifting and transforming with every single segment, and yet it seemed the same, and it seemed to be one with her.

Chloe then saw the death of this warrior, as she took her own life, unable to live with the fact that she'd been unable to save her lover. But before her death she'd cut off her own hand and hidden it in this crevice, the bone and flesh rotting away to reveal the weapon within.

Centuries had creatures tried to take out the weapon, and yet all those who tried had died, their arms melting from their bodies, the rest of their body following the procedure.

And then the image was of the gold in her body, unifying, merging, each side accepting the other and bonding.

The pain and heat were just too much, and before the darkness took over, Chloe looked up, the last thing she saw was the Elder bowing his head to her.

* * *

Lois looked up when the Head Elder returned, carrying Chloe's unconscious body.

The brunette's eyes widened in horror as she hurried towards them. "What happened? What did you _do_ to her?!?" She snapped, pulling her cousin's body out of the Elder's arms and holding her in her own, kinda shocked that she was strong enough to do this.

Apparently she was a _lot_ stronger than she'd been before.

She looked up at the Elder, expecting some answer, when he just nodded in respect.

As one, the Predators filed back onto the spacecraft, Scar hanging back and placing a hand on Lois' shoulder in both a goodbye, and as a comforting gesture.

She realized he was telling her that Chloe was okay. "Thanks."

The Predator nodded, lowering his hand to Chloe's head, obviously curious as well about what had happened.

Shaking his head, he gave them both a bow of his head, before turning back to the ship.

As he turned, the main thrusters of the Predator Craft started to fire up, causing a snowstorm beneath the ship.

Covered in blood and bruises, Warrior Spear tucked between the waistband of her pants, holding Chloe's unconscious body, Lois watched as the spacecraft rose into the heavens, becoming lost in the storm.

When it was over, Lois looked down at Chloe's body, and then around them at the endless snow and destroyed whaling station.

"How are we going to get out of here?" She asked. "The Haaglunds all went down with the station…and the Piper Maru is a _long_ walk away from here."

Understandably, Chloe wasn't answering.

Lois sighed, getting a better grip on her cousin and turned towards the direction she _was almost sure_ they'd come in, beginning to trudge through the knee-deep snow.

She didn't know how long she carried Chloe, but when the earth began to tremble, an odd rumble echo throughout the air, Lois stopped, eyes narrowed at the hill of snow she was trying to climb.

All of a sudden bright lights broke through the ever twilight sky and a Hagglund crested over the hill, stopping in front of her.

Lois paused, shocked.

The door of the Haaglund flew open, and _Miller_ stuck his head out. "I can't bloody believe it."

The other door was thrown open and Sebastian stumbled out of the vehicle, hurrying towards her. "Are you two okay?" He asked, coming towards them, eyes wide. "What happened to your _eyes_?"

Lois blinked, surprised, remembering her red orbs. "It's complicated."

"I don't doubt it." Sebastian announced, pulling Chloe's body from Lois' arms. "Come, we must go inside. Its' freezing out here."

They hurried back into the Hagglund, Sebastian in the front with Miller, Lois and a laid out Chloe in the back.

"Where did she get the change of clothes from?" Miller asked, turning the Haaglund around and beginning to drive once more towards the Piper Maru.

"It's complicated." Lois replied once more.

The men exchanged a look.

The brunette sighed. "Did anyone else make it out? Or is it just you two? And why did you come back?"

"Other than us, you two are the only ones we've seen." Sebastian answered with a sigh, running his hands over his hair. "We were halfway towards the Piper Maru when we saw the explosion and we decided to double back just in case someone survived."

"Thank bloody god we did." Miller announced as they went over a bump.

Lois nodded, remembering something and pulling out the camera Chloe had found deep in the pyramid, from out of her jacket's pocket. "Here. Chloe found this." She passed it to them.

Miller was shocked when he saw the camera. "My pictures of the boys!"

Lois smiled.

She then noticed something on the ground in of the backseat. It was one of the Weyland backpacks…with a Predator Plasma gun sticking out of it.

Her eyes widened.

What were Sebastian and Miller doing with one of the Predator Guns?

The last thing Weyland Industries needed was to have something of this _power_.

Lois sent a look in front, content that the men were busy talking about the amazing return of the camera, before moving the backpack closer to her with her feet.

She was going to have to find a way to get the Plasma Gun _and_ Chloe off of the Piper Maru and safely back to LexCorp.

* * *

Chloe gasped, coming awake.

She was lying on the backseat of something moving, a motor whirling overhead, her body wrapped around a backpack with a Predator Plasma Gun sticking out of it.

"Where are we?" She sat up, blinking in surprise to realize that she as in the backseat of a helicopter, Lois flying solo in the front. "And why do we have a Predator Gun?"

Lois looked back at her in surprise, before grinning. "It's complicated."

Chloe nodded, climbing up into the front and sitting down on the navigator's seat, strapping herself in.

"What happened to you on the ship?" Lois wanted to know.

Chloe's gaze went down to her arm…which was now completely normal and didn't hurt at all. "It's…_complicated_."

The girls shared a look.

"Whatever the complication was, you've been out like a bulb for a couple of hours now." Lois announced. "We're T-minus 20 minutes from landing. I already radioed Lex an hour ago and he's waiting on us."

Chloe winced. "He's not going to ever let me out of his sight ever again, huh?"

"Nope." Lois grinned.

Chloe turned to look at her cousin curiously, just having noticed something. "Your eyes are still red."

"I know." Lois gave Chloe a look. "Yours are back to normal."

"We're going to have to have Lex run some tests on you, just to know what to expect."

Lois sighed, remembering how Chloe and Jack had had to go through the same thing when they'd gotten back from Romania. "Yippie-ki-ay."

Chloe grinned.

But there weren't any grins the next day as she stood deep within the Weyland Cryo-Lab, Weyland having apparently signed her entrance approval before going on the trip, knowing that she'd accept his proposition.

She could sense Lex and Lois behind her, wanting to comfort her but knowing that she needed this small amount of privacy as she stared into the cryo-chamber that held Jack Macalister.

"_Jack_." Taking the last steps towards the glass chamber, pressed her hands on the barrier between her and Jack, who was cryo-frozen in his sleep.

A tear made its way down her cheek.

He was still so handsome, just like she remembered him last…but things had changed since she'd seen him last. He was paler, so horribly pale, and half of his body had already mutated beyond repair to resemble that of the creatures in the cave.

"I'm so sorry." Chloe whispered brokenly, trailing her hand over the frozen glass. "I'm so _sorry_."

"Chloe." Lex's hand went down comfortingly on her shoulder from behind, warm and soothing and _there_.

Chloe turned from the sight and curled into Lex, burying her face in his shirt as his arms went around her, warm and secure.

He pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. "They'll find a way to save him, Chloe. They will."

"I know." She whispered into his shirt. "They'll fix him. But---but I have to let them---I have to say goodbye. This---this was what he would have wanted."

Lois watched from behind them, wiping at a tear coming from her ever-ruby eyes.

Both Chloe and Lois had returned changed from their sojourn in the pyramid. One would never have normal colored eyes again, and had a mutation she would have to spend months, maybe years trying to understand and get used to, and the other had an unidentifiable organic material covering her complete skeleton, and no one knew what exactly that material would do to her.

"We should go home now." Lex whispered into her hair.

"Ok." She nodded, allowing him to lead her away from the room.

Lois joined them.

Chloe sent one last look behind her at the cryo-chamber and Jack.

_Goodbye_.

And with that she walked away with Lex and Lois, holding their hands, strong as a family, a unit…heading towards the unknown destiny before them.

* * *

**So endeth The Pyramid. Hope you enjoyed :D**


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